While investigating the research reports in the process of writing my article Writing about Personal Trauma, I found a lot of very promising research indicating that writing and repeating “self-affirmations” are remarkably powerful in improving the writer’s physical and mental health. While these reports strongly supported the benefits of expressive writing, one report in particular (Creswell, et al, 2007) was very informative about what it is about expressive writing that is so potent. In this experiment, women with breast cancer were asked to write a series of essays about their thoughts and feelings in response to their diagnosis and treatment. As is routinely found in this kind of study, expressive writing resulted in better mental and physical health several months later. Then, when the researchers carefully analyzed the content of the essays the women had written, they found that self-enhancing and positive statements about themselves predicted the improvements months later.
In the last few decades, a large body of research literature shows that directing research subjects to write in ways that are “self-affirmative” decreases the harmful impact of stress by improving the sense of wellbeing, mental health, and physical health. It is remarkable how writing positive essays about yourself can have very long-term beneficial effects. For example, studies involving high school students have found that just a few self-affirming writing assignments were associated with a higher grade-point average over the next three years (Sherman, et al, 2013).
Brain imaging studies involving scans of people in the process of self-affirmative writing help us to understand these long-lasting impacts. It turns out that self-affirmative writing trains your brain to be more positive, more efficient and better balanced. Areas of the brain that help minimize the effects of stress and better balance the body’s metabolic processes are strengthened (Casio, et al, 2016). While this body of research is very extensive and well replicated, we are not yet using much of what it is showing us in our routine medical care.
Before going on to how we can easily apply what we know about self-affirmation in our lives, I will discuss one more article that I find to be amazing in its documented improvements in people who had recently had open-heart surgery. As you might expect, this is a group who had been very highly stressed in many ways. In this research study (Yildirim, et al, 2023), three days after their surgery, heart patients were randomized to listen to a series of positive affirmations or neutral topics. Over the next three days, the group that listened to the self-affirmation audio recordings for about fifteen minutes per day experienced much less pain, less nausea, and less shortness of breath. Listening to audio recordings resulted in a major improvement in their level of comfort after this highly invasive surgery!
Creating effective self-affirmations
The extensive research into the benefits of creating, hearing, reading and speaking self-affirmations has strongly pointed out certain important characteristics they should have. Keeping them short and succinct helps you to remember them for later use. They should also be phrased in a positive manner, avoiding negatives and avoiding stating anything you prefer to avoid. In addition, it is best to phrase them in the present tense, as opposed to referring to the past or what you want to experience in the future.
Although some research studies utilize pre-selected affirmations, and these have been shown to be effective, other research shows that it is even more effective when the affirmations are carefully tailored to the personality of the individual using them. Of course, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, different key experiences from their past, and different needs. Your goal should be to find or create statements that are very relevant to you. They should align with your usual state of mind, your beliefs and your most important values. Pay close attention to how you feel when you hear or read them, selecting those that feel the best.
In the next section, I will suggest ways to search for and find affirmations that have been useful to others and ways to create potent affirmations yourself.
Sources of potential self-affirmations
Before getting into some useful strategies for finding and creating good affirmations, I want to share a technique that I have found to be exceptionally helpful in organizing a large number of ideas and short pieces of useful information: index cards. As I have looked for useful affirmations, I have kept a stack of index cards nearby to write down each potentially useful phrase, allowing me to easily categorize, rank and sort them later.
There are many articles and videos on the internet which provide lists of affirmations that others have found to be useful. You could easily go through some of these and record those that sound good to you. Aa an alternative, if you have a favorite religious text, you might read through your favorite passages and use this source of inspiration to create affirmations. These are two relatively quick and easy ways to develop your personal set of affirmations.
While my next two suggestions will take a lot more time, I think the time investment will be well worth it since the processes involved have been shown to have powerful self-healing potential in-and-of themselves, and they are also will be a good source of more personally relevant affirmations. The first of the two has been called “gratitude writing.” There is extensive research literature (two of which are cited in the references at the end of this article) that shows that writing about what you are grateful for has an enduring impact on your health and wellbeing. I suggest that you set aside fifteen to 30 minutes per week, for several weeks, to write about things that you are grateful for. You might write about your gratitude for things people have personally done for you in the past. Or you might write about your appreciation for those who have designed and built modern appliances or things like your house or car that make life more comfortable and convenient. The possibilities are endless, but the results are that writing about these kinds of things will feel good, have long-term benefits for you, and will also be a good source of self-affirmative phrases to add to your growing collection.
A second excellent strategy for developing powerful self-affirmations is to write about intensely positive experiences from your past. There is also research literature (two of which are referenced at the end of this article) that shows that writing about intensely positive events from your past life will also improve your life in the future. Like with gratitude writing, you might set aside time to write in depth about one or more of these experiences. These writings should also feel good and have long term benefits in your life. Each of the writings you produce in this way will then be yet another source of very positive, personally tailored affirmations.
Creating and using your personal affirmation packet
If you have followed my suggestion about using index cards (or some similar technique) and have selected or created personal affirmations, you should now have a number to work with. Next, you might rank them in some way. For instance, each index card could be given a rating of one to five, with one being mildly positive and five being very, very positive. Using these ratings, you could narrow your affirmation phrases down, selecting those that feel best as you review them.
You might just take this list and read it (silently or out loud) for about five minutes twice a day. Another approach could be to record your list and listen to your recording twice a day. Then, as you use your affirmation list over time, you may want to change the wording or add new affirmations. There are no hard and fast rules, but whatever feels better to you is better, and the more you engage with your personally targeted affirmations, the more powerful they will be for you. If you use this strategy for just ten minutes a day for a month, I am very confident you will see a significant impact in your life.
References
Here is a randomized, controlled trial showing women with breast cancer who wrote four twenty-minute essays about their feelings had improved mood and less disturbing physical symptoms three months later. Notably, it was the self-affirmation content of the essays that fully mediated these beneficial effects.
Creswell, DJ, Suman L, et al, Does Self-Affirmation, Cognitive Processing, or Discovering of Meaning Explain Cancer-Related Health Benefits of Expressive Writing? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 2007; 33:238-250
Here is a randomized, controlled study of disadvantaged middle school students who were given self-affirming writing assignments on four or five occasions. When their academic progress was followed over the next three years, students who did the affirmative writing had a significantly higher grade-point average than controls.
Sherman DK, Binning KR, et al, Deflecting the Trajectory and Changing the Narrative: How Self-Affirmation Affects Academic Performance and Motivation Under Identity Threat. J Person Soc Psych 2013; 104
This study examined the brain changes that occur when people engage in self-affirmations. Researchers found increased activity in brain areas associated with positive self-valuation.
Casio CN, O’donnell MB, et al. Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Soc Cog and Aff Neuroscience 2016; 11: 621-629
Here is a randomized, controlled study of the health benefits of listening to pre-recorded affirmations for just a few minutes a day for patients recovering from heart surgery:
Yildirum M, Akbol S, et al. The effect of self-affirmation on anxiety and perceived discomfort in patients who have undergone open-heart surgery. A randomized controlled trial. App Nurs Res 2023; 72: 1-22
Here are two examples of research trials showing benefits from doing gratitude writing:
Toepfer SM, Cichy K, et al. Letters of Gratitude: Further Evidence for Author Benefits. J Happiness Stud 2012; 13: 187-201
Emmons RA, McCullough ME. Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life. J Personality and Soc Psych 2003; 84: 377-389
Here are two examples of research trials showing benefits from writing about intensely positive experiences from your past:
Burton CM, King LA. The health benefits of writing about intensely positive experiences. J Res Personality 2004; 38: 150-163 Burton CM, King LA. The health benefits of writing about positive experiences: The role of broadened cognition. Psychology and
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