AFFIRMATIONS GUIDE — PART 8 of 8
Growth Affirmations
Reminders to let go of bad habits and become your ideal self
In Part 7 of my affirmations series, I discussed how to use success and work affirmations to bring more success into your life. In this part, I will discuss affirmations for change and personal growth.
We all have parts of ourselves that we’d like to change, but those changes don’t happen on their own. We have to set the right intention to make them happen and constantly remind ourselves about them.
Affirmations are a great way to remind yourself of the change that you want to embody. Some things I want to work on are patience, reactiveness, and complaining, among others. So you will see affirmations for each of those in my list of affirmations below. They serve as useful reminders about some of my bad habits, which helps me be more aware of them and catch myself before I fall back into them.
In one affirmation, I mention not always giving in to the “Monkey Mind.” The monkey mind is our primitive mind that is focused on getting pleasure and avoiding pain. I remind myself that there is much more to life than those things, and I shouldn’t always listen to my “Monkey Mind.”
You will see that the last few affirmations involve asking myself what a certain person would do. I invite you to think of someone (or some people) you admire whom you would want to embody and learn from and make proud. It could be a person in your life or a celebrity, living or deceased, real or fictional.
When you embody them, try to really feel what it feels like to be them. When I want to feel more confident, I like to embody James Bond because he is so calm, cool and collected. I try to feel what it would feel like to be in his shoes.
Here are my growth affirmations:
- I am patient
- I am not irritable
- I am not reactive
- I am not entitled
- I will not complain
- I will not get upset about being interrupted
- It’s ok to have to repeat yourself. Be grateful for the chance to grow
- Remember, the first step is always to not get upset. Then address the issue or situation. Never allow yourself to get upset
- I do not take life too seriously
- I’m not a perfectionist
- I will be positive about all social interactions. They are good for me
- I choose to no longer create my own suffering
- I pursue happiness, self-improvement and inner peace, not pleasure. And I do not avoid pain
- I will not always give in to my Monkey Mind’s desires
- Remember to prioritize facing and accepting instead of resisting. That is the most important thing in my life. Do it after every meal. Do it when you wake up in the morning. I will be excited and grateful for feeling anxiety because that means I have a chance to grow and desensitize, moving me towards my main goal in life right now
- Anxiety rule: Don’t start anything (good or bad) until you’ve cleared your anxiety
- What would ___ do? (Fill in the blank with someone who you admire)
- I want to make ___ proud. I want to be someone they would be impressed with
- Embody James Bond
I highlighted the one about facing and accepting because it is very important to me. Facing and accepting anxiety rather than resisting it teaches your nervous system to be less sensitized. My main goal in life right now is overcoming anxiety through acceptance.
That “anxiety rule” I mentioned in the affirmations can be very useful. Instead of just mindlessly going from one activity to the next, I like to take the time to check-in between activities and clear my anxiety by going within and facing and accepting it. It doesn’t matter if the activity is something enjoyable like a hobby or something less enjoyable like work. Taking the time to clear my anxiety beforehand helps me enjoy each activity more and be more productive. I don’t always remember to do this, but when I do, it’s very powerful.
I invite you to create your own affirmations for personal growth. A great way to come up with affirmations is to ask yourself questions like: “What do I need to hear? What do I wish people around me would say to me more? What do I want to be reminded of?”
What are the areas in which you wish to change or grow? Share your affirmations in the comments!
If you truly want to grow, you must push yourself outside of your comfort zone. wrote an excellent article about the importance of stepping outside of our comfort zones.
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