Discover how you can kickstart positive mental growth!
This year’s theme for Children’s Mental Health Week (Feb 7-13) is Growing Together. It’s all about encouraging positive mental growth, reflecting on your own mental health growth and helping others to grow with you.
This week, we’ll be sharing 5 great ways to focus on your mental health growth – check in with us every day for a new self-help mini project including lots of great tips and advice to help you grow your mental health.
Day 1: Positive Affirmations
Guilty of self-sabotage? Struggling with negative thoughts? Growing your mental health can be tricky when you’re starting from a negative place so let’s start with figuring out how to sprinkle a little positivity in your soil soul!
What Are Positive Affirmations?
Positive affirmations are statements to help you overcome and challenge negative thinking. By repeating positive mantras, you can quieten your negative inner voice, giving yourself a brighter outlook on life.
Why Do Positive Affirmations Work?
We all get bogged down with negative thoughts from time to time. We may convince ourselves that we’re not clever/pretty/sporty/wealthy enough to achieve our goals and this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why? Well, tell yourself enough times that you’re “not good enough” and you’ll soon start to believe it. Your confidence will drop, and your motivation begins to slide away. Before you know it, you’re in a negative downward spiral and your goals are slipping further and further away…
Here’s where positive affirmations come in. By challenging negative thoughts and repeating positive mantras in your head or aloud, you can rewire your brain. It’s not wishful thinking; it’s actively choosing to banish “I can’t” to focus on “I can”. And when you think positively, you act positively, resulting in happier vibes and a better attitude.
When To Use Positive Affirmations
Speak your positive affirmations whenever you feel like you need them. This might be when you’re stressed out at work, struggling to meet a deadline with homework or to kickstart a dreary morning. Positive affirmations can help to boost your:
- Confidence
- Attitude
- Productivity
- Self-esteem
- Coping abilities
- Academic achievements
How To Use Positive Affirmations
Feeling stressed, inadequate, anxious or sad? Time to use your positive affirmations!
- Pick a positive affirmation that works for you/the situation.
- Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and say it out loud or in your head.
- Repeat it over and over again, focusing on the words and their meaning.
- Open your eyes and take another deep breath. Keep the mantra in your head and call it back if you need to repeat these steps over again. You’ve got this!
Positive Affirmations For YOU!
Ready to give it a go? We’ve pulled together a few positive mantras for you to use or you can search online to find different phrases.
