Why Daily Affirmations May Actually Help

You do not have to believe every affirmation right away. Sometimes the first step is simply giving your mind another voice.

I used to think affirmations felt a little strange. If I don’t feel confident at all, but I keep telling myself, “I am confident,” isn’t that basically lying to myself? That’s why I don’t think a good affirmation should force you to believe something that feels completely untrue. It’s more like this: if your mind is already used to saying, “I’m not good enough,” “Did I mess something up again?” or “Maybe they don’t like me,” an affirmation gives you another voice to put into the mix. You don’t have to believe it right away. The point is simply to stop those negative thoughts from being the only voice in the room.

There’s a related idea in psychology called self-affirmation theory. It’s not exactly the same as the positive affirmations we usually talk about. In simple terms, when you’re criticized, rejected, or something goes wrong, it’s very easy to jump from “this didn’t go well” to “maybe there’s something wrong with me.” Self-affirmation helps remind you that you are bigger than this one moment. You still have things you care about, things you do well, and values that matter to you. Research suggests that this kind of self-affirmation can make people a little less defensive and give them more room to deal with uncomfortable information, instead of immediately falling into “I’m not good enough.”

And then there’s the phrase people use all the time: “rewire your brain.” I think it’s okay to say this, as long as we say it carefully. The brain really can change through repeated experience, learning, and practice. This is called neuroplasticity. But we can’t simply say that repeating one affirmation every day automatically creates a brand-new neural pathway. What we do know is that some fMRI studies have found different patterns of activity in brain areas involved in self-related thinking, value, and reward during self-affirmation, and some of those responses have also been linked to later behavior change. So what you repeat is not meaningless. You are already practicing certain ways of thinking every day. Maybe, without realizing it, you’ve spent years practicing self-doubt, self-criticism, or worrying about what other people think. Daily affirmation is simply a way to start practicing another voice too.

References

Reference 1 — Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333–371.

Reference 2 — Cascio, C. N., O’Donnell, M. B., Tinney, F. J., Lieberman, M. D., Taylor, S. E., Strecher, V. J., & Falk, E. B. (2016). Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(4), 621–629.

Reference 3 — Falk, E. B., O’Donnell, M. B., Cascio, C. N., Tinney, F., Kang, Y., Lieberman, M. D., Taylor, S. E., An, L., Resnicow, K., & Strecher, V. J. (2015). Self-affirmation alters the brain’s response to health messages and subsequent behavior change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(7), 1977–1982.