You may already be familiar with the self-care tool called, ‘positive self-affirmations’ as a way to support your mental health and wellbeing, but how does it help? This article dives deeper into the health benefits of this self-care practice and how to make your self-affirmations with a creative twist!
What are Self-Affirmations?
Self-affirmations are defined as positive statements or mantras that can help you to overcome fear, anxiety, or other hardships in the face of life struggles. When you repeat these positive phrases often, and believe in them, you may start to see positive changes unfold throughout various elements of your life. This practice can help you in creating more space for confidence, and replacing negative beliefs with positive ones. In doing so, self-affirmations can also help you to develop changes in your thought patterns and provide more understanding of your mental habits.
An example of a self-affirmation could be:
“I can do this”
“I am enough, I have enough”
“I am in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing”
“I believe in myself”
“I am deserving of love, dignity, and respect”
“I do my best and my best is good enough”
“I trust myself to make the right decision”
Think of this practice as a mental exercise; just like activities for our physical health, the more we repeat the practice, the more we are strengthening our mental well-being. These positive mental repetitions can reframe our thinking patterns so that, over time, we begin to think and act differently. For example, if someone is struggling with self-doubt, uncertainty of the future, shame, or feelings of inadequacy, aspects of our self-view can be challenged leading to experiencing increased psychological discomfort. The self-affirmation theory posits that our mental health can be supported through maintaining a positive self-view and that self-affirmations can help to restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values, spiritual beliefs, internal wisdom, ways of healing, or other personal characteristics.
It may also be important to note that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to mental health tools or practices. For some individuals who may deeply struggle with self-esteem, it can be very challenging to believe in positive statements of the self or even think of a positive statement in which they can identify with. This is why it is important to understand how to use self-affirmations effectively and in developing a strategy that is more personalised to honour your way of working.
For every person regardless of age, our relationship with ourselves is important and a key place of knowledge that can better direct care for your mental and physical health where you need it most. One of the best ways to begin the journey towards growing, mending, or maintaining a strong connection to yourself is through engaging in self-compassion. The Centre for Clinical Interventions shares how the very essence of self-compassion is the core value of meeting suffering with kindness. So, how can we approach this practice in a more playful, personal, and creative way?
Creative Self-Affirmations:
Conventionally speaking, self-affirmations may often be just that; a statement. But what if a self-affirmation could physically take up space, to be seen in real life? Well, it can! We can represent self-affirmations in many different ways including in the form of an artwork, meaningful action or gesture, or as a symbolic item, and more. Sometimes, it is not only words that can hold great wisdom and have the ability to act as a self-affirmation.
Adding a creative component to the self-affirmation practice can help foster a stronger connection to the phrase or mantra, thus, binding the process together in a much more meaningful and often tangible way. Creative self-affirmations is an art therapy technique often used for increasing resiliency, affirming a sense of self-integrity, and celebrating one’s self-worth. This technique is applied through situational opportunities, in context to the presenting challenges, and in creating a visual representation of meaningful learnings. The underlying idea is to express one’s values and visually produce art that can effectively communicate ways to affirm their self-integrity.
Try This:
Let’s make some art depicting your Inner Wisdom!
Reflecting on your internal strength and inherent wisdom, call to mind a person, place, or compassionate companion who embodies this wisdom. For example, this could be the part of you that knows what's best for you, a loving friend, animal, or family member who you turn to in need of support, or a special place that makes you feel comfortable to be your true self. Using any materials of your choosing, create an artwork, meaningful quote, or other creative practice to connect to this person, place, or thing. You can also start to get curious about what that person or place would say to you, a reminder of sorts that you may need to hear right now. This is just one small example of how the creative process can help us to explore our strengths and what kind of self-affirmation feels personally meaningful to you.
What to learn more about creative self-affirmations?
Get in touch with the Miya Creative Care team and find local art therapy and other creative therapy resources near you.
Comments