At one point or another on this spiritual journey you have come across someone or something pushing affirmations on you and your practice. While affirmations are not the be all end all of personal growth, they do offer up a positive energy shift that can be just the nudge you may need to double down in new perspectives and thought patterns. So, don't go blowing them off entirely.
For those who may be unaware, an affirmation is an action of affirming, confirming, or stating something firmly that usually is based upon a truth or a fact, even at times offering up emotional or encouraging support. Spiritually, especially mainstream modern sometimes even toxic spirituality, has borrowed this simple term and used it in a system that is well known as Affirmations. However, in spirituality it kind of flips the perspective and uses this statement of "fact" against ourselves, in order to instill growth and healing through the changing of neuropathways within the brain and the processing of the subconscious mind/body. So more often than not we are stating things about ourselves or our life that we "wish" were fact, because often times we don't perceive it to be our personal truth at the time we are using this technique. This is a similar idea to when you hear someone say, "live as if it already is". This is what you are doing you are white lying to yourself as if it already is.
When you grow and heal you will realize that it's not that what you were saying was actually a lie, but that your perspective was biased, so what you were affirming may have seemed far-fetched or complete bullshit to your conscious brain, but that's okay. We affirm our soul's truth rather than our ego's truth, as many people wish to be more soul focused in spirituality than vessel bound.
You repeat affirmations over and over again and honestly it is through the repetition that change occurs. Many have spent hours, days, and years mentally belittling themselves, judging themselves, and taking criticisms from others and that energy weighs heavy on the conscious and subconscious brains, which all effect our energy and our perspective on not only ourselves, but the world around us. So, saying it just once is not going to undo or even budge the scale of our perspectives on things. Verbally saying affirmations out loud does multiple things. We not only confirm and state for the Universe where we align and what we are claiming should find us or return to us in energy and abundance, but we are reprograming all 7 trillion cells in our body that listen to us energetically every day, and we are painting them a different picture. Words are spells and we are speaking good things into our lives. But beliefs are often taught and through repetition you are actively replacing negativity with positivity, and you will notice how the human body reforms and changes depending on what it's being fed and what kind of energy you surround yourself with. Have you ever gone into work and your boss is having a bad day and his attitude really affects you and how your day went. The same idea happens in energy. You are offering your energy, your vessel, your brain, your light-body a different perspective and when done repetitively you are pumping and maintaining a constant source of positive energy in your life for you to not only grab on to, but to build from.
Not to mention by verbally saying your affirmations out loud they can easily act as a manifestation, when you align with what you say the turnaround time is pretty fast! And the more you say it the more you are likely to align with is, as it become part of you and your energy.
Examples of Easy Generic Affirmations:
I Am Wise
Things Go And Flow My Way
I Feel Love
I Know I Have Value
I Create Abundance Wherever I Go
My Bills Are Paid Easily And Without A Second Thought
Today And Everyday I Am Blessed And Abundant
My Dreams Are Coming True
I Love Myself
My Confidence And Self Esteem Is High
I Am Smart
You can make your affirmations as personal or basic as you would like. You can mix in all 6 senses when expressing them to add to your full body validation. Also, you can add in different prefixes to locate and join in each individual chakra center. (I Am, I Feel, I Know, etc.)
Have Fun, Be Consistent, And Change Will Find You!