A Powerful Morning Routine

(Adapted from Julie's YouTube video)

One of the concepts in this post will likely make a huge difference in how you work with affirmations. It will change them from being simply some positive words that you say to an actual tool you can use to make the changes you want in your life. 

The other day I was flipping through the beginning pages of my journal, which is what I always do as a part of my morning routine. I like to jot down everything I want to remind myself of to help me have a happy and productive day. I do that at the beginning of my journal, so I came across the affirmations page. I kind of slacked off a bit lately on doing any affirmations, but I do find them extremely helpful. So, I thought to myself that writing down an affirmation in my journal would be a great thing to do. 

I began to look and read down through the list of affirmations in the journal. It was then that I noticed that every one of the affirmations on the list in the journal this time was one that I really needed and could benefit from using in my life right now. Honestly, this kind of surprised me, but it's true and I'm wondering how many of them would be helpful to you too. 

Here’s a link to The Affirmations Page in the summer JMB Living Journal

There are a few reasons why I believe that adding affirmations to your morning routine is smart and a powerful way to start your day.

I think everyone should use affirmations as a part of their morning routine. If they do nothing else for you, they set a positive tone for your day.

• They help you start with an optimistic mindset and can set the stage for a really good day for yourself in a multitude of ways. 
• You are likely to start the day a bit happier and you are likely to be a bit more motivated to do whatever it is that you want to do and accomplish in your day.
• You also are more likely to stay focused on what your intentions are for the day and as a result of all of this,
• Your day will more than likely flow with a little bit more ease and
• You just might notice some opportunities that could help you reach your goals a bit faster. 

It only takes a few short minutes of your day and you get all these benefits. I mean it's a no-brainer to give this a try, right? Now there are several ways that I use affirmations.

Several Ways to Use Affirmations

Writing Down Affirmations 

I like to write affirmations down in my journal and there's growing scientific evidence that supports that any time you write something down by hand as opposed to typing it, your brain is much more likely to remember it. Your brain processes the incoming data in a different way. It just gives a signal to the brain that this is important. Writing things down also increases the connectivity between different areas of your brain and by doing so it increases your retention as well. 

The ones that I like to write down are the ones that I like to work with regularly.  Some affirmations you can use to bring about a change in how you're feeling or your emotions. Examples of this would be, "I embody hope" or "I feel radiantly alive and happy". I don't necessarily write these type down, as I'll be using those in a moment just to change how I'm feeling right then.

You can also use affirmations when you want to make something different in your life. When you want to make changes such as becoming really good at a skill or perhaps you want to attract the perfect partner or if you want to improve your financial situation for instance. These types of affirmations should be specific to you and to your situation. Usually, you're going to want to write your own for this and you will likely need to use them for a period of time to help you acquire the skills that you need, as well as the confidence that you'll need to actually make them happen and become possible for you.  

If you're new to writing down affirmations you may want to check out this video where I talk about the dos and don'ts of making your own affirmations. 

It can also be helpful to write down affirmations when you're trying to change the way you feel about yourself.  An example of this kind of affirmation might be something like, "I am worthy of love and respect" or "I am excellent with managing my money and everything I touch turns to gold."  You want to write this type down because usually when you're thinking about yourself a certain way that you want to change, you've programmed yourself for years to think this way about yourself.

So just saying an affirmation one time likely isn't going to be enough for you to be able to believe it. These affirmations are the ones that you'll probably like to work with over a period of time, so writing them down is one way that can be very helpful.

Affirmations During a Walk or a Shower

I also commonly like to say affirmations on a walk or in the shower.  Both of these are perfect places to do affirmations. In the shower that hot water just relaxes you and calms your body, and, because you are receiving less outside stimulation, your attention can be more easily focused and you can go inward a little bit more easily.

When you're doing an affirmation, you need to see how it lands when you say it to yourself. You want to really sense if you believe it or not and you want to be able to feel this in your body as well as your mind. So you need to be able to focus on your internal perception  (we'll get to how you can do this and how you can go about really believing your affirmation, here in a moment).

When you're taking a walk, this is another activity that is typically really calming to the body and the movement stimulates the brain. The rhythmic quality of the activity can also help you to organize your thoughts and prevent you from being distracted.

Walking can also be a mood booster, which can be really helpful when you're making affirmations. I try to make affirmations about changing things in my life when I'm already in a really good mood and sometimes that means making a couple of state-feeling affirmations like "I am confident" or "I feel happy" first, because it can make it easier to make the ones about making life changes (since these can be a little bit more challenging to believe). It can make it easier when you're actually in a good mood when you're trying to make those.

The other thing is that this is one time when multitasking actually makes sense, because these are things that you are already doing and you don't have to set aside extra time to do your affirmations. (If you do them when you're taking a walk or a shower).

Why Affirmations Don't Work for Most People 

This is because typically when you say an affirmation, your brain automatically pipes up with all the ways that this is not true or that it isn't possible. If you leave it to yourself to think that way, it just reinforces the opposite of what you want in your life.

You need to find a way to get beyond the doubt. How do you do this? Start by paying attention to the brain chatter. Listen to what kinds of reasoning the brain is coming up with. Then take a moment to figure out how you can get beyond that and how can you possibly do something different that makes it more plausible that this affirmation is true.

For instance, maybe you want to get a promotion at work and your affirmation is, "I am a product manager of XYZ product". Maybe when you say your affirmation, your brain pipes up and says this will never happen. It may say your boss doesn't have any confidence in you and so at this point, you want to shift into problem-solving mode and you ask yourself. "What can I do to begin to shift the opinion of my boss?"

Perhaps that means that you get educated about something and then you bring up your ideas in a team meeting or maybe you volunteer for a particular task or a project and then you just knock it out of the park. So you keep repeating this.  You'll say your affirmation again and you'll listen for the doubts to come up and you'll figure out ways to get beyond the doubs. It may take several times and you may come up with some of the same doubts and that's okay. You just keep going through it, until you really believe it and to where it feels like it's true.

I hope you find this helpful. Good luck with you affirmations!