Blog

A Special Note from YMN: As Youth MOVE National continues it’s a commitment to Black Lives Matter, providing resources in response to COVID, and being a leader on youth engagement, we have taken time to create a general flow of blogs for the coming months. Over the last couple of months, we paused on sharing COVID/home blogs so we could properly address racism and BLM. We will continue to highlight Black voices and share resources as it relates to anti-racism and start to integrate voices and reflections about the world around us while living in a pandemic. Furthermore, we want to use this space to highlight youth engagement, peer support, and resources to improve systems. Over the next several months, you will start seeing variety and mixture within all of these topics. Thank you for your continued support of the Youth MOVE mission!

The Power of Self-Affirmations

Written by Johanna Bergan

If your daily grind is anything like mine, you could use both an instant pick-me-up AND a long-term resiliency boost. This pandemic stuff is rough. I’ve been working to carve out just a few minutes each day to spend in self-reflection and resiliency boosting activities. My current obsession is with the power of self-affirmation.

Can I interest you in practicing the power of self-affirmation with me? A self-affirmation is a positive statement about something important in your life that you would like to remember and reflect on regularly. The statement can be pretty short and should reinforce a positive belief about yourself or a situation. A great example of a simple and powerful self-affirmation is:

 “I am enough.” 

The power of self-affirmation comes from repeating a reflection that you wish to develop a stronger belief and trust in. For me, this pandemic has left me feeling very ungrounded and off-kilter, so focusing on an affirmation each day gives me a few moments to connect back to the earth. Statements that are really helping me right now include: My contributions to the world are valuable. My needs and wants are important. I’m doing my best and that is enough.

It’s super important to double check your affirmation and make sure it’s not reinforcing a challenge for yourself. I steer away from affirmations that are connected to physical appearance and tangible objects. Also keep words like ‘can’t’ and ‘won’t’ out of your affirmations.

Need inspiration for finding affirmations? We’ve got you covered!

Resource: Positive Affirmations from Youth MOVE’s Leadership Academy Handbook

Instagram’s worth following:

Now it’s time to build your daily affirmation practice!

Building habits is hard work. To build a daily affirmation practice, I’d recommend creating a bunch of reminders for yourself. There are so many creative ways to set reminders!

1.       Set a daily calendar alert – mine is set for 7:00 pm and says “I am strong.” It’s set to ding to my notification screen so I can’t miss it.

2.       Put a post it note on your computer keyboard. I like this because it is easy to swap out a new affirmation every day or so!

3.       Write an affirmation on your bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker (or even lip stick)

It’s more than just reading an affirmation each day. You really need to let it sink in. The way I do this is to read the affirmation before and after a round of deep breathes.

“I am worthy.” Deep inhale. Hold. Deep exhale. Hold. Repeat 2x more. “I am worthy.”

And if taking deep breaths is hard for you (it sure is for me) – feel free to use this to track your breaths.