Maintaining one’s mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being in a world full of noise and distractions requires finding quiet and peaceful moments. A powerful method is to combine positive affirmations with (Crystal and Tibetan) singing bowl sound healing therapy.
Defining Positive Affirmations
Statements or phrases that affirm the traits, convictions, and goals we want to live up to are known as positive affirmations. By repeatedly repeating these affirmations, people can rewire their subconscious minds to replace negative thinking patterns with empowering beliefs. Positive affirmations have been demonstrated to increase self-worth, lower stress levels, and promote a more upbeat attitude toward life.
Singing Bowls for Sound Healing
Sound healing therapy uses singing bowls to create soothing, resonant tones that reach the body and mind. In order to balance and harmonize the body’s energy centers, or chakras, sound bowls produce frequencies that resonate. As they immerse themselves in the gentle vibrations of the singing bowl, participants may experience a deep sense of calm and relaxation.
Affirmations and Sound
The advantages of both sound and purpose meditation are enhanced when Crystal/Tibetan sound bowl meditation is paired with positive affirmations. Affirmations can more easily enter the subconscious mind when the body and mind are in a receptive state, produced by the singing bowls’ vibrating energy. Before the meditation, repeating the affirmations strengthens constructive intents and beliefs.
Advantages of Including This Routine Every Day
- Stress Reduction: The calming sounds of the singing bowls and the uplifting power of positive affirmations lower stress levels by encouraging relaxation and mental clarity.
- Emotional Healing: Positive affirmations promote emotional healing and self-acceptance, while sound vibrations can dissolve energetic barriers and trapped emotions.
- Affirmations like “I AM confident and capable” can be repeated to increase self-esteem and foster a more positive self-image.
- Improved Clarity and Focus: Immersion in sound meditation helps you focus on your objectives and affirmations by purging your mind of outside distractions.
- Desire Manifestation: Aligning your thoughts and intentions with your aspirations through sound meditation and positive affirmations helps to achieve your goals easier.
- Affirmations promote self-reflection and personal development, enabling a greater awareness of oneself, while sound therapy’s contemplative component provides time for contemplation.
- Better Sleep: Sound meditation before bed, when combined with thankfulness and positive affirmations, can enhance the quality of sleep by lowering worry and encouraging a calm mental state.
Methods for Practice
If you want to include sound meditation and positive affirmations in your daily practice, choose a peaceful area where you will not be bothered. Use a warm blanket and your favorite candle to create the mood.
To center yourself, concentrate on your breathing while sitting or lying comfortably. After saying your selected affirmations, play a singing bowl meditation.
Allow the vibrations and the strength of your intentions to lead you into a profoundly relaxed and receptive state as you lose yourself in the sound.
Sound meditation combined with positive affirmations is a powerful practice for inner peace, equilibrium, and personal development. Combining sound and constructive intentions can improve mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Explanation of Positive Affirmations
It is nearly as simple to define positive affirmations as it is to put them into practice. These are affirming words or sentiments used to counteract unfavorable ideas. Simply choosing and repeating a phrase to yourself is required to practice positive affirmations.
You could decide to utilize positive affirmations to inspire yourself, support constructive life choices, or increase your sense of self-worth. These can counteract negative self-talk patterns and swap them out for more adaptive narratives if you regularly catch yourself engaging in them.
A Scientific Basis of Positive Affirmations
Regular practice of positive affirmations is necessary if you wish to alter your thoughts and emotions in a way that lasts. Positive affirmations are based on well-established and widely acknowledged psychological theory, which explains their popularity and use.
The Theory of Positive Affirmations in Psychology
The theory of self-affirmation is one of the main psychological ideas underlying positive affirmations (Steele, 1988). According to some empirical research, we can preserve our self-integrity by positively expressing our beliefs to ourselves.
Global self-efficacy, or our perceived capacity to influence moral outcomes and react adaptably when our self-concept is in jeopardy, is linked to self-integrity (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). Humans are driven to preserve our integrity in order to defend themselves against these dangers.
Self-Affirmation and Self-Identity
Three fundamental concepts form the basis of self-affirmation theory. We must remember them if we want to comprehend how the philosophy of positive affirmations operates.
First, we maintain a worldwide narrative about ourselves by affirming ourselves. According to this story, humans are morally upright, adaptable, and flexible. Our sense of self comprises this (Cohen & Sherman, 2014).
As previously said, self-identity—which we aim to preserve—is not synonymous with a rigorous and precisely defined self-concept. We can have a flexible self-identity rather than seeing ourselves in a single “fixed” way, such as a “student” or a “son.” We can think of ourselves as taking on various roles and identities. This implies that there are various ways in which we can define success.
This can be advantageous since it allows us to see our positive aspects and improves our ability to adjust to various circumstances (Aronson, 1969).
Second, according to self-affirmation theory, being exceptional, flawless, or superb is not the goal of preserving one’s sense of self (Cohen & Sherman, 2014). Instead, to be moral, adaptable, and sound, we must be skilled and sufficient in various areas we value (Steele, 1988).
Finally, we uphold our integrity by behaving in ways that truly deserve recognition and appreciation. Saying, “I am a responsible grandfather” is not a positive affirmation that we utter because we wish to be praised for it. We say it to earn the compliment for behaving in a manner that aligns with that specific personal ideal.
Examining the Research
The growth of the self-affirmation idea has prompted neuroscientific studies to examine if positive self-affirmation causes any changes in the brain.
According to MRI data (Cascio et al., 2016), self-affirmation tasks appear to increase specific brain circuits. This activity involves positive valuation and self-related information processing (Falk et al., 2015; Cascio et al., 2016).
When we use positive affirmations, we are better equipped to see threatening information as more self-relevant and valuable (2015: 1979) Since this concerns how we interpret information about ourselves, this can have a number of advantages, as we will see in a moment.
The Advantages of Everyday Affirmations
Here are six empirical study examples that support the potential advantages of positive self-affirmation techniques:
- It has been demonstrated that self-affirmations reduce stress and worsen health (Sherman et al., 2009; Critcher & Dunning, 2015)
- Interventions that encouraged people to enhance their physical behavior have successfully employed self-affirmations (Cooke et al., 2014)
- They might make it easier for us to accept messages that might otherwise be viewed as “threatening,” such as interventions (Logel & Cohen, 2012)
- They can reduce our propensity to ignore negative health messages and instead encourage us to consume more fruits and vegetables and make positive changes (Harris et al., 2007; Epton & Harris, 2008)
- By reducing the drop in GPA among college students who feel excluded, they have been positively associated with academic progress (Layous et al., 2017)
- Self-affirmation reduces rumination and stress (Koole et al., 1999; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
Some of the Health Advantages of Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations can help us react to threats less defensively and resistively, as the research indicates. According to one study cited above, smokers wanted to modify their behavior and responded less dismissively to warnings on graphic cigarette packets (Harris et al., 2007).
More broadly, though, having a broad, flexible sense of who we are makes us more adaptable to challenges when they arise. A broader self-concept can be very beneficial, regardless of the source—social pressures, difficult health knowledge, or feelings of isolation.
Affirmations to Improve a Person’s Perspective on Life
Affirmations, naturally positive utterances, are intended to promote a good outlook. Furthermore, optimism is a strong emotion in and of itself. Affirmations have been demonstrated to assist in lowering negative thoughts by addressing the propensity to dwell on unpleasant memories (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
When we can deal with negative messages and swap them out for positive ones, we can create more adaptable, optimistic narratives about who we are and what we can do.
Healing Affirmations
A healing affirmation is a compliment regarding your physical health. These affirmations, made popular by author and speaker Louise Hay, are predicated on the notion that your thoughts can positively impact your health. It is not necessary to be ill to use healing affirmations; if the concept resonates with you, it can be as beneficial for resolving emotional stress.
Healing Affirmations to Promote Positive Change
Healing affirmations help you deal with stress more skillfully. For many years, we have all been exposed to some form of programming that tells us what is “wrong” with us, how we “should” be, how we have failed, or how many mistakes we have made. Because we keep this unpleasant baggage in our subconscious, it permeates everything we do and makes it difficult for us to adapt and move on. Positive affirmations, on the other hand, assist us in finding joy in the present and contentment in the present. This is among the most potent transformation agents.
Since the mind is so strong, it must be addressed. Everyone knows how powerful it is to be told things like “You look good.” It frequently makes us feel better right away. People’s words have an impact on us. Similarly, we can focus our minds and bodies on our desires. We must reaffirm our desires, express them intentionally, and put them out there. We must determine our needs and desires and beg the universe for them. After that, we can move toward that reality both consciously and unconsciously.
Closing your eyes and sitting or resting flat on your back is advised. If you fall asleep, wake up and concentrate on your affirmations. Try your best to practice in a distraction-free, peaceful setting. Affirmations are best practiced in the early morning. They are especially effective at night, right before bed, because they assist in rewiring your subconscious as you fall asleep. By doing this, you make your own inspirational phrases the final thing you think about each day, bringing you clarity and optimism into the next one.
Affirmations can also be recited at work, over lunch, or while enjoying a walk or some downtime. Making time each day to recite these affirmations is crucial. If you have the time and the desire, you can do this more than once daily. Having a diary of your selected affirmations on hand can be beneficial so you can quickly consult it when you have some free time or need a quick reminder. The journal’s simple presence in your pocket can occasionally provide all the support you need, even if you have not read it.
Positive Affirmations for Black Students
Black students are at risk of adhering to or being evaluated by unfavorable preconceptions about their racial or ethnic group in academic contexts, according to Steele and Aronson (1995). Stereotypes and other identity threats cause psychological effects, such as stress, anxiety, and vigilance, which lower academic performance. They may also lead to a “downward spiral” of performance and longer-term disengagement (Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008). These stereotype threats may be partially responsible for the growing racial achievement gaps in education since they are specific to groups that are the target of unfavorable academic challenges.
Positive affirmations for Black students will help as strategies to counteract such stressors and systemic issues. Affirmations can empower Black students to develop greater resilience and self-confidence when their values, skills, and potential are consistently affirmed (Owusu, 2024).
Doc T Elliott’s Final Thoughts
I advise all, particularly Black people, to dedicate time each day to restate their positive affirmations. As long as you can feel the words in your thoughts, you do not need to move your mouth or make any noise. However, if you want to say the affirmations aloud, then go ahead and do it. Select the affirmations that speak to you the most and are most pertinent to your life.
We must treat ourselves with kindness and refrain from punishing ourselves for regrets. Making mistakes is a natural part of life; we are all here to learn from our experiences. We learn this way, hoping to avoid making the same mistakes.
After a few weeks of affirmation practice, you should observe a change in your mind, body, and perspective on life. Affirmations are a potent change agent and will provide significant advantages if used daily, with positive intention. Peace and blessings!