Sometimes, you might catch someone mumbling to themselves and think, “I wonder what they’re saying?”.  Sometimes you catch people saying to themselves… “I can do it.” or, “Oh, I even amaze myself!”. 

You may even chuckle, because you remember a time when you did that too.  Well, the old saying from Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t…you’re right.”, really does stand the test of time.  The words you tell yourself hold so much power. 

When you say, or even think, negative things about yourself, then you reduce your energetic power and your physical power.  Positive thoughts and words provide just the opposite.

I once witnessed an exercise to illustrate just that.  Jon Gordon, the amazing keynote public speaker at a conference I was attending, had a person stand and hold their arms out straight to the side and parallel to the ground. 

Then, to test their strength, he tried to press their arms down to the ground as they resisted.  Pretty good strength…they withstood without a lot of stress and strain.  Then he had them put their arms down, say negative things about themselves (even if it was made up), and retested them in the same way.  Oh boy, their arms went straight to the ground.  They had no strength.  It was a shocker! 

Then, with their arms still down, he had them say positive things to themselves (even if it was made up) and then tested them one more time.  Voila, their strength was back. 

Well…this had a big impact on me, and I decided to test it out on a bunch of people at work, and much to my amazement, it followed suit.  In fact, most people drop their arms, even if only a few inches, after much stress and strain to keep them up!   This was a dramatic demonstration of the fact that what we tell ourselves, aloud or in thoughts, is the power we give to ourselves.

The amazing thing is that at any moment, we have full access to this power, and it’s free!  When you’re sad and you listen to sad songs, you stay sad.  When you are pushing yourself to achieve, and you encourage yourself, you feel the strength to persevere. 

So, what are some affirmation examples?  Only you know what you really need to hear, but one example from the “Saturday Night Live” character, Stuart Smalley, comes to mind, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”  Why not make affirmations a part of your day, every day?

Here’s to a life of passion, positivity, joy, fulfillment, and more!

Brenda