Our thoughts lead to our emotions, which lead to our actions. If you allow your inner dialogue to constantly be negative, you are going to feel terrible about yourself, your body, and you are understandably going to feel pressure to diet or punish yourself. So how can positive affirmations change the dialogue?
If you can redirect your negative thoughts to neutral or even positive ones, how would that change your life?
Here’s how I like to think of it. Picture this:
You could start your day with a positive thought being the first thing going into your mind instead of scrolling on your phone and feeling the stress of the day right away.
Sounds simple enough right?
So now getting started:
- First of all I find it easier to do consistently if I have a list prepared that I can pick from based on how I am feeling that day. To create this list I suggest thinking of advice you would give a friend in your shoes.
For example:
You deserve love and belonging.
You can do hard things
You deserve to take up space
Your worth does not come from your weight
You are strong and capable
You are getting better and better every day at listening to your body
- Now turn those statements into first person.
I deserve love and belonging
I can do hard things
I deserve to take up space
My worth does not come from my weight
I am strong and capable
I am getting better and better everyday at listening to my body
Do these statements still feel true? If not I encourage you to dig deeper into why. What belief do you have that is telling you, you are not deserving of love? Allow yourself to feel those hard feelings.
- Then, make it specific to you
What challenges are you struggling with? What words of encouragement do you need to hear? Can you be your biggest cheerleader?
- Now, write this in a journal or better yet on a sticky note or mirror where you will see it multiple times that day. Intentionally read it again and again.
As you can see some of these have what seems like nothing to do with your body and that’s okay. The goal at the end of the day does not have to be in love with your body, but we want to have some sense of body neutrality and respect.
You can also practice writing down what you are grateful for that your body allows you to do or things that you find beautiful about yourself that have nothing to do with your physical appearance.
Now that you started your day this way I challenge you to continue speaking kindly to yourself throughout the day. We are so good at being our biggest self critic, try to be your best friend today. Shut down those negative thoughts and replace them with neutral or positive ones.
If you need to reflect more on how you view your body and how it currently impacts you, try using the prompt below to dive deeper before creating your affirmations.
Reflect on your body for 5 minutes.
- How do you currently think about your body? Write down some words that come to mind.
- How has this thinking served you? How has it impacted your life, relationships with others and yourself?
- What are you afraid might happen if you learn to respect your body?
