The Science of Affirmations: How Repetition Changes Your Brain

Affirmations are positive statements that are aimed at changing a specific thought pattern. Positive affirmations can help improve negative thinking and self-esteem. Affirmations are different than inspirational quotes. Affirmations have the power to change the way our brains operate. It’s important to remember that affirmations have roots in self-compassion and science. Affirmations change the way our brains are structured. Adopting a new mindset is always possible and is often the first step towards healing.

What Are Affirmations?

Affirmations are positive statements that help shift unhelpful or negative thinking patterns. These statements are typically short and easy to remember. Making them easy to remember ensures that you will be able to continue to use them in your day-to-day life. This helps people to integrate the affirmations into their lives. These statements are typically used when people want to improve how they see themselves and the world. They can be used to improve mental health and reduce the symptoms of mental health conditions. Affirmations are especially helpful if people are dealing with an inner critic or negative self-talk.  Some examples of affirmations are:

• I am enough just the way I am.
• I am strong and capable.
• I am worthy of love.
• I am beautiful and unique.
• I am smart and empowered.

In order for affirmations to be the most beneficial, they should be altered to fit the person’s goals and values. People can identify their values as things that are most important to them and set goals around them. They can then create affirmations to help support the goals the person is trying to complete. Affirmations are not meant to ignore the negative things in life. Instead, affirmations are aimed at looking at ourselves, our lives, and the world with a little more compassion. Affirmations help to retrain our brains to see things differently. These positive statements can help rewire our brains and thought patterns.

Common Myths About Affirmations

There are myths about affirmations that sometimes make people hesitant to adopt them. We want to debunk some of these myths so that readers understand how helpful affirmations can be in their lives. 

• Myth: Affirmations are rooted in toxic positivity.
  Truth: Affirmations are about positive thinking, but not about ignoring all of the negative things in life. These statements are not meant to force positivity but rather help people adopt a more positive outlook on life.
  
  
• Myth: Affirmations are a quick fix.
  Truth: Affirmations take time, consistency, and repetition to work. They have the power to change a person’s life, but they also require a lot of hard work.
  
  
• Myth: Affirmations make you feel better immediately.
  Truth: Affirmations are helpful tools that can help us feel better over time. Unfortunately, using affirmations will usually not make a person feel better right away.
  
  

The Science of Affirmations

Like we mentioned above, affirmations have the power to rewire our brains and create new pathways. When we repeat affirmations, we activate parts of the brain that are involved in reward and processing. This can help our brain adopt these new thoughts and self-beliefs. By default, our brains are trained to look out for threats to keep us safe. This is referred to as the brain’s negativity bias. With this in mind, it makes sense that we need to train our brains to see the positive in situations. One way to do this is through affirmations. Repeating affirmations continuously will create new neural pathways in the brain. 

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is defined as the brain’s ability to create new pathways on its own. The brain is able to create these new pathways through repetition. Through repeating positive thoughts or beliefs, we can begin to replace the older negative beliefs that we may still be holding onto. In some cases, practicing affirmations can be compared to creating new habits. Our brains need time and repetition to adopt these new practices. However, with time, these habits can become second nature. Neuroscience teaches us that affirmations can also become automatic after repetition over time. 

Ways to Use Affirmations in Daily Life

The first step in incorporating affirmations into our lives is creating affirmations that feel relevant to you. Everyone’s affirmations will be a little different depending on the specific negative thoughts they are dealing with. You can begin by starting to think about negative core beliefs you may have about yourself or the world. After you understand what these beliefs are, you can begin to create affirmations to combat them. It’s important to use the present tense with affirmations and to make them believable. If “I love myself” doesn’t seem believable to you at this moment, you could try repeating “I am learning to love myself”. This distinction helps to make affirmations more believable and more likely that you will practice them. Affirmations are about growth and learning, not perfection.

There are no right or wrong ways to practice affirmations. The process of adopting affirmations is about finding what works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to practice affirmations. Some people enjoy repeating affirmations when they first wake up or right before bed. This framework helps people to start and end their day with their newly adopted positive thoughts. Others like writing their affirmations in their journal. Some people like to repeat affirmations in the mirror every day. Other people like writing affirmations and placing them around their house. This can help remind us of the new mindset we are trying to adopt. We can pair affirmations with mindfulness to get even more benefits out of them. Mindfulness helps us to stay in the present moment and focus fully on our new positive beliefs. Affirmations can help to improve our self-talk, which will improve how we see ourselves. 

Benefits of Affirmations

As we have mentioned, affirmations change the way our brain is wired. Through this process, people may notice that they feel more confident and trust themselves more. Affirmations also help people develop emotional resilience, which will help in times of hardship. These positive statements can be helpful as a part of therapy and mental health treatment. Affirmations can be used to remind ourselves of the insights we have made. These positive statements can also create a more positive outlook in general. Having a positive outlook can improve optimism and self-compassion levels.

Affirmations can be helpful tools for people wanting to change their thinking patterns or outlook on the world. These statements can help people remind themselves of the positive side of things. Affirmations are the most helpful for people who are dealing with negative thoughts, self-doubt, or self-esteem issues. Practicing affirmations is not about ignoring the difficult things in life. Rather, practicing affirmations is about choosing to see the positive in situations and actively training our brains to do the same. While adopting new thought patterns takes time, it’s always worth the effort. 

If you (or someone you love) may benefit from treatment, we are here for you! Reach out to us today if you are ready to start your healing journey.

References

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2025/10/self-affirmations-well-being 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4814782/ 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6931103/ 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006899325002021 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/neuroscience 

Keywords: affirmations, neuroscience, positive thinking, neuroplasticity