Affirmations are B.S.

Affirmations have long been touted as a powerful tool for self-improvement, promising to transform lives by fostering positive thinking and boosting confidence. However, they’re really not all they’re cracked out to be.

Affirmations are positive statements or phrases repeated with the intention of influencing one's thoughts and behaviors. Proponents argue that regular affirmations can reshape the subconscious mind, enhance self-esteem, and attract positive outcomes. The practice often involves repeating statements like "I am confident," "I am successful," or "I am worthy" to instill a positive mindset.

For example, if you want to be more confident, you might repeat “I am confident” over and over again in an attempt to become more confident.

How fun! How sexy! How EASY!

Unfortunately, it’s also super pointless.

The problem is that our limiting beliefs live in our subconscious mind, and merely repeating a phrase in a conscious state does nothing to reshape the subconscious mind. If you lack confidence, it’s because of things that have happened to you throughout your life that have chipped away at that confidence. Telling yourself that you are confident won’t change that fact.

Let me explain with an analogy:

Let’s say your dishwasher stops working because the door latch is broken.

Trying to become more confident by telling yourself that you are confident is like trying to fix your dishwasher by telling yourself that the dishwasher is working. It’s probably not going to work.

Your dishwasher isn’t working because the door latch is broken. The way to get the dishwasher to work again is by fixing the door latch.

Similarly, here, your confidence is lacking because you’ve had life experiences that have chipped away at your confidence. You have to address these actual incidents. Just telling yourself something does exceptionally little at making it be true.

I can see the appeal of affirmations—they’re easy, they’re accessible, and they feel magical.

But you know what’s ACTUALLY magical? Reprogramming your subconscious beliefs. That ACTUALLY works. To find out how, listen to Blush episode 160, “Am I the A**hole: Affirmations are B.S., Do This Instead,” available everywhere you listen to podcasts (including iTunes/Apple Podcasts here) and you can WATCH the whole episode on Spotify, available here.

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