By Cynthia de Lorenzi, author, Your What’s Next Journal.

As we roll out Your 2021 What’s Next Journal, I’ll be sharing monthly affirmations from the pages of each month’s Spirit section. We hope that you will take a look at the affirmations we are sharing for the month, repeat the ones that fit what you are feeling at the moment, then, as you get more comfortable with the art of Affirmations, begin to write your own.

Let the Affirmations guide you! As you repeat them, scribble, doodle, and draw freely about the thoughts and images that these powerful words conjure up. Simply move your intuitive thoughts into your hands and move the pen, paint whatever unconsciously, even with your eyes open or closed, to freely move healing in through and out of your body and consciousness.

Why are Affirmations so powerful? As most women know, there is magic in science and science in magic. So we turn to Positive Psychologist and MBA Catherine Moore for insight. “Science-based MRI evidence suggests certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks,” she explains in her article, Positive Affirmations: Is There Science Behind It?

Here’s how Affirmations work:

• The goal: Positive statements motivate, encourage positive changes, and boost self-esteem.
• The process: When you find yourself getting caught in negative self-talk, positive affirmations can be used to replace subconscious patterns with adaptive narratives.
• The science: This is called Self-Affirmation Theory, which posits that “people have a fundamental motivation to maintain self-integrity, perception of themselves as good, virtuous, and able to predict and control important outcomes. In virtually all cultures and historical periods, there are socially shared conceptions of what it means to be a person of self-integrity, which means that one perceives oneself as living up to a culturally specified conception of goodness, virtue, and agency.” Self-affirmation theory examines how people maintain self-integrity when this perception of the self is threatened.
• Three key ideas are underpinning it:
  • Self-identity: This is not about being exceptional, perfect, or excellent. We need to be competent and adequate in different areas that we personally value to be moral, flexible, and good.
  • Self-integrity: By acting in ways that authentically merit acknowledgment and praise. We don’t say something like, “I’m a responsible mother,” to receive that praise. We say it because we want to deserve that praise for acting consistently with that particular value.
  • Self-affirmation: We keep a global narrative about ourselves in which we are flexible, moral, and capable of adapting to different circumstances, which makes up our self-identity. This is not the same as having a rigid and strictly defined self-concept (a wife, daughter, writer, etc.) In this flexible state, we can see ourselves as adopting a range of different roles and identities — and we can define success in different ways, too!

Play with it: Find a comfortable and relaxed space and take in a moment to relax and let go of stress in your body by checking in mindfully and recognizing that stress and let it go. Next, begin doodling; circling simply move your marks on the paper in free flow. Mentally check each part of your body and organs to see if there is something there needing a bit of attention. As you are drawing, begin to release negative energy and send healing thoughts to that part of your body.

Cynthia’s January Affirmations:

• I vibrate healthy healing energy to every cell in my body.
• My body, and my being, are healthy and strong.
• It is easy to care for myself; I am full of energy.
• I ensure I get the sleep and rest I need to restore my body.
• I love to exercise for perfect health.
• It is for me to choose the right food and exercise for my optimum health.

What are yours? We welcome your submissions to share with our growing network. Please send them to my co-author, Hope Katz Gibbs, by email.

Photo: Image of journal by avrdreamer