Positive Affirmations, Do They Work?

We've all "heard" of positive affirmations.

Maybe even taped some on your bathroom mirror.

But do we use them? Do they work?

Numberous articles share just how powerful our thoughts are and how they can help set the tone for our day and restore our balance when we feel a little off. One of my favorites in this one from Huffington Post.

"Research tells us that every thought and emotion creates a chemcial reaction because it immediately changes our neurochemcicals that affect our mental, physical and spiritual health," Kathleen Hall, Ph.D., stress expert and CEO and founder of both The Stress Instituteand the Mindful Living Network, told The Huffington Post in an interview. When a stressful thought fires up, you have the power to cancel it out with a positive one.

This idea became very clear to me during the Soul Restoration eCourse, when Melody shared her idea of making "Truth Cards". I won't go into her details because you'll want to take the class to get the full picture, but I learned enough to say that this method makes sense for me.

The key is making the affirmations personalized. Creating my cards in my own style and putting the words on them that spoke to me made them MY truth cards. I knew I would love and use them.

There are many ways to make truth cards – index cards, repurposed flash cards, cardstock squares, deck of cards, etc. In the class, we cut out pre-printed strips and also printed some of our own to use. We were to use the ones that spoke to us . . . sometimes cancelling out the negative phrases we often say to ourselves.

I chose a carefree, quick and easy method to make my cards. I made a stack of cards in about an hour and I adhere the word phrases every few days.

I started with a large sheet of white poster board and painted shapes, patterns, drips, puddles, etc.

After that layer dried, I repeated the same method, adding more paint.

Then I used an old foam stamp I've had for years and stamped white hibiscus flowers all over it for one uniform pattern.

I added a think white-wash look in some areas to tone down the whole piece.

I used an Xacto knife and ruler to cut the poster sheet into 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" cards. I got lucky and ended up with no waste.

These all go into a large ziplock bag (someday I'll get a "pretty" bag for them) and receive positive words or "truths" periodically. On a challenging day, or just a day when I need a good reminder, I pull these out and read through a few of them.