6 Ways Affirmations Lift Your Spirits Through Tough Workdays And Build Robust Careers

Comedians have long considered self-affirmations fodder for jokes with tongue-in-cheek phrases such as, “I’m smart enough” or “I’m good enough.” During the 1990s, Al Franken created and performed the fictional character Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live in a mock self-help show called Daily Affirmation. Years since, otherwise willing participants have disavowed the off-putting idea of kind self-talk and positive affirmations.

What Are Positive Self-Affirmations?

Back in the day, people who talked to themselves were considered “crazy,” and it was easy to use self-talk as fodder for jokes. Today—especially in light of Mental Health Awareness month—positive self-talk is one of the most effective mental health tools available because it provides us with a broader perspective of ourselves. The science of self-talk has shown time and again that how we use it makes a big difference. Negative talk can lead to anxiety and depression. Positive self-affirmations can mitigate dysfunctional mental states and cultivate healthier states of mind.

Self-affirmations are positive prescriptions of encouragement about yourself. They are not tricks to convince you that you or situations are better than they actually are. They are present tense statements you might not totally believe but want to believe, and they are within your reach. For example, before entering a situation, you can imagine the best outcomes by telling yourself, “I can do what I set my mind to do, and I can do it well,” “My mind is calm and relaxed” or “I manage stress with ease.”

The Science Of Self-Affirmations

When you’re having a bad workday, your mind is designed to automatically constrict and target the negative threat. The mind is like Velcro for negativity and Teflon for positivity. If you’re searching for a solution to a work problem, your negative emotions stay focused on the problem, and your myopic focus blocks out the big picture.

Like the zoom lens of a camera, Mother Nature hardwired our survival brain for tunnel vision to target a threat. Your heart races, eyes dilate, and breathing escalates to enable you to fight or flee. As your brain zeroes in, your self-talk makes life-or-death judgments that constrict your ability to see possibilities. Your focus is narrow like the zoom lens of a camera, clouding out the big picture. And over time you build blind spots of negativity without realizing it. But when you learn to broaden and build your outlook, it enlarges your range of vision so you can see the upside of a downside situation, the opportunity in the difficulty or the gain in the loss—leading toward more possibilities and creative solutions.

Modern science has produced a body of research showing that self-affirmations are powerful career advancement tools that actually promote heart health, well-being and contribute to confidence, motivation and productivity. According to the science, positive self-affirmations can benefit you on challenging workdays and help you build a robust career over time because they:

1. Act as “cognitive expanders,” reducing the brain’s tunnel vision of self-threats and broadening your perspective so you can step back from a career challenge, see the big picture and brainstorm a wide range of possibilities, solutions and opportunities.
2. Reduce anxiety and increase the likelihood that you scale career obstacles and excel in your performance when you use them before or after a career challenge.
3. Boost your chances of rebounding, motivating you to get back in the saddle after a professional misstep, while negative self-talk reduces the chances.
4. Cultivate a long-distance relationship with your self-judgment, making room so you can see your self-potential more fully in the broader self-view.
5. Open up blind spots of negativity that you have built unknowingly that have clouded out bigger career potential.
6. Free you from your mind’s limitations and bolster your self-worth by lifting the veil of your “shortcomings” so you can see and affirm your “tallcomings.”

How To Practice Self-Affirmations

When you notice you’re in an unpleasant reactive state—such as judgment, worry, anger or frustration—hold the emotion at arm’s length and observe it impartially from a distance. Observing an inner thought or emotion like you would inspect a blemish on your hand allows you to be curious about why it’s there. Instead of pushing away, ignoring or steamrolling over the unpleasant thoughts or feelings, the key is to acknowledge them with something like, “Hello frustration, I see you’re active today.” This simple form of self-talk relaxes them so you can face the real hardship—whatever triggered them in the first place. This psychological distance flips the switches in your survive brain at which point you are calmer and more clear-minded.

In times of distress, career challenges or after a defeat—talking yourself off the ledge in a calm, comforting tone helps you rebound as if you’re applying salve to a wound. Here are some examples of how to practice self-affirmations and be for instead of against yourself:

• Place gentle hands over your heart and belly so you feel the warmth of your hands against your chest and stomach, sending yourself kind thoughts and feelings. Let the warm feelings wash over you, breathing gently and deeply for a few minutes, noticing your hands comforting your body.
• Practice positive self-talk, speaking to yourself in a warmhearted way—using your first name instead of the “I” pronoun—feels like you’re being comforted by someone other than yourself. “Bryan, you’ve got this.”
• Use pep talks, “atta-boys”or “atta-girls” and positive affirmations to give yourself an instant lift.
• Throw yourself a thumbs-up every time you finish a project, reach a deadline or accomplish a professional goal.
• Use curiosity, instead of judgment, when you make a mistake, fail or feel rejected. Self-judgment stops you in your tracks, adding insult to injury. A mind frame of curiosity motivates you to move forward with self-support.
• Keep a computer file or bulletin board with affirming emails, letters, notes, gifts and sayings that people send you. Look at them often to remember the truth about yourself. If someone praised you a week ago, that affirmation still stands even if you’re not feeling it in a difficult moment. Put reminders to yourself on your bathroom mirror, the back of a closet door or fridge or record affirmations to yourself on your cell phone and play them back once in awhile.

With all the scientific benefits of self-affirmations why not follow in the footsteps of gold medal athletes and successful business people like ABC Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran. “The most amazing thing happened when I replaced the tape in my head from, ‘You’re not smart enough,’ or ‘You can’t compete with them,’ to ‘You’re f-ing amazing, Barbara!’” Corcoran says on LinkedIn. “I started believing it.”