The Confidence Cleanse: Affirmations
“I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain.” These lyrics from The Sound of Music are slowly becoming my new mantra. When I need a little boost of confidence whether it be before a class, an interview, or to start my day strong, I remind myself what Julie Andrews is really doing when she sings “I Have Confidence”- her affirmations!
The key to confidence is all about your thoughts, specifically transmuting negative thought patterns into positive ones. A tried and true approach is through affirmations. By flooding your mind with positive thoughts, you’re reconditioning your brain to believe and see the good within yourself. The way affirmations work is all about consistency and repetition, overcorrecting your thoughts until eventually the positive becomes the default. The first step to a confidence cleanse, or just reinforcing the confidence within yourself, is checking in with your subconscious thoughts. Our subconscious is often how we operate on autopilot, and there’s no better time for autopilot to kick in than when we’re stressed. You might notice negative thoughts popping up more than usual when you’re feeling burnt out or on autopilot, and ask yourself “Why brain? Now’s not the time!” This might be due to the state of your subconscious programming and whether or not it’s rooted in positive beliefs about yourself or one’s that aren’t so helpful. How we talk about ourselves truly matters.
Here’s an exercise I came up with for assessing the health of your subconscious mind. Next time you look in the mirror, observe your thoughts. Notice the ratio of judgemental/criticizing to satisfied/positive thoughts. If you notice that you’re a little skewed to the negative side, your subconscious may be operating from a place of negative self beliefs such as not feeling good enough, needing to change something about yourself, and maybe even shame. It is completely normal to have a subconscious that might be defaulting to the negative. After all, it’s hard to escape the expectations society puts on us to look/act/be a certain way, and it can be very challenging to not let other people's opinions affect us. All the more reason for a proper confidence cleanse and to overcorrect your subconscious with affirmations.
I used to be that person who rolled her eyes when anyone told me to practice affirmations. I thought it would never work and that it would waste my time, but I wish I listened sooner. As I started studying psychology, I realized the power of neural plasticity. Neural plasticity is defined by Wikipedia as “the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.” In a nutshell, this proves that it is in fact possible to rewire our brain and stop those negative thoughts from being perceived as truth. Affirmations are a powerful tool in this shift. The secret to affirmations is practicing them when your brain is in a theta state. The theta state is known to be the best brain state for impacting the subconscious mind. We are naturally in this theta state right before we go to bed, right when we wake up, when we meditate, and when we’re in a state of hypnosis. Because of this, I started implementing listening to affirmations to my morning routine and boy have I noticed a positive shift in my thoughts! Starting the day off with positive affirmations not only reprograms your subconscious, but also sets yourself and your mood up for success with some positive energy and gratitude. A few of my personal favorite YouTube affirmation videos to listen to when you’re in that theta state are:
Positive Affirmations for Self Love, Self Esteem, Confidence 💫
Positive Affirmations to Change Your Life 🦋✨
Powerful Positive Morning Affirmations ☀️
Make listening to these videos your new routine for the next 2 weeks, see how your thoughts begin to shift, and turn off the autopilot. As much as we are mindful about what we eat, be mindful about what you feed your mind. What you think matters, so remember to treat your mind with kindness!
Thanks for reading,
Michelle
