The Science Behind Positive Affirmation
It’s quite easy to practice positive affirmations; all you have to do is choose the right statement and speak it to yourself. Positive affirmations, fortunately, are virtually as simple to understand as they are to put into practice. Simply put, they are statements or phrases that are intended to counteract negative or unhelpful thinking. Claim your Benefits of Relaxing Music.
You can use positive statements to increase your self-esteem, motivate yourself, or promote desirable changes in your life.
Positive affirmations can then be used to challenge these often-subconscious habits and replaced them with more adaptable narratives if you constantly find yourself wrapped up in negative self-talk. Is this practice, however, convincing? Is there a scientific basis for this?
Definitely, yes! There is a science behind positive affirmations. If you want to improve the way you think and feel in the long run, you need to practice positive affirmations on a regular basis.
The good news is that positive affirmations are grounded on psychological theories that are widely acknowledged and well-established.
Affirmations are positive remarks that can assist you in confronting and overcoming negative and self-defeating ideas. Positive affirmations have been demonstrated to aid with the inclination to linger on unpleasant events when it comes to eliminating negative thoughts.
This may appear to many as a self-help gimmick, and it is, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial. Let’s take the time to know some of the scientific basis behind positive affirmations:
Socio-Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
This study states that the reward centers in your brain are activated when you practice self-affirmation.
Simply think to yourself, “I’m going to get that promotion,” and the same reward centers that respond to other pleasurable events, such as eating good food, will be activated.
obtaining a prize, or it stimulates your brain’s neurological pathways and alters the areas in the brain that bring you joy and cheer.
The Psychological Perspective on the Use of Positive Affirmation
Steel (1998) stated that the self-affirmation theory is one of the most important psychological ideas underpinning positive affirmations.
Yes, there are researches based on the premise that reminding oneself (or reinforcing) what we think in a positive way might help us preserve our sense of self-worth.
On the other hand, according to Cohen &Sherman (2014) in a nutshell, self-integrity refers to our perceived ability to influence ethical outcomes and respond in a flexible manner when our self-concept is endangered.
As a result, we are compelled to retain our self-integrity in order to protect ourselves from these risks.
Powerlessness and Self-Affirmation as a Solution
The favorable impacts of self-affirmation on attainment and work performance of stigmatized groups have been extensively researched.
Self-affirmation therapies that entail writing about essential personal beliefs, for example, have been demonstrated to dramatically increase the school achievement of minority kids, who are often stigmatized for their intellectual ability (Taylor et. al, 2011).
Moreover, with positive affirmation, encouragement among first-generation college students, who frequently come from financially impoverished households, have been found to boost goal-directed intentions and behavior, reducing the performance gaps between those students and their more financially advantaged classmates (Harackiewicz et al., 2014).
The above-mentioned studies and researches are just a few of the many scientific studies that have been published to support positive affirmations.
Several studies also back up these assertions: lessening health-damaging stress, increasing activity, encouraging people to consume more fruits and vegetables, and improving academic performance.
We contribute to creating a worldwide narrative about our identity by practicing self-affirmation. In the wake of the international story we’ve built, we must identify ourselves as moral and adaptable.
As a result, we are able to see ideas like happiness and success in a variety of different ways, allowing us to better adjust to new situations.
Furthermore, according to the philosophy of self-affirmation, a person’s identity should not be maintained by striving for perfection or excellence. Instead, individuals should work to improve their skills in aspects of living that are important to them.
Your self-affirmations should be positive and focused on actions you can take to support your sense of self-identity in order to have any impact on your self-esteem.
Your affirmations should be guided by your true qualities or those that you think to be vital.
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