Affirmations for Self-Care!

Louise Hay known for her best-seller ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ brought her theories about health and healing into the wellness arena some 40 years ago. During the 1970’s she worked as a counsellor, holding groups sessions with people from all walks of life, and particularly with young men diagnosed with HIV and AIDs. Her work was based on using affirmations for self-healing, and getting to the root emotional cause of dis-ease in the body.

I am a huge fan of Louise and was so happy to see her live in Melbourne Australia in 2012. This one conference caused such a big shift in my consciousness and my life has not been the same since. Seriously! Over the years I’ve loved intermittently using positive affirmations as a way of keeping myself on track, staying motivated, and adding an injection of positive energy into my day.

So how can Louise and her work help you?

 

The Benefits of Using Affirmations

1. You Can Tailor Them to Your Needs 

Having a bad hair day? Instead of putting yourself down all day, try an affirmation such as ‘I am beautiful inside and out’.

Beating yourself up for not getting your to-do list done? Try, ‘there is plenty of time to do everything that I want and need to do today’

Unsure of where you are at in life, not clear on which choice to make? Try, ‘everything is working out for my highest good, today and always’.

This last one is a particular favourite of mine, because sometimes in life things can feel yucky and situations or relationships can be challenging. If we can embrace the magic of life and allow ourselves to trust the things that happen are simply little jigsaw pieces in a much larger puzzle, it makes it easier to surrender and just kind of go with it, without struggling so much.

If you are in really in a crisis, affirmations can help to keep your mind clear and free of worry thoughts, similar to using a mantra in meditation.

I also love to pair my affirmations with flower essences. At the moment I don’t have any Bush Flower Essences (I do love to make up blends) but I do have this ready-made Rescue Remedy from the Bach flower range. They are just beautiful in moments of stress!

 

2. You Can Shut Down the Inner Critic

Our ego is our self-image, not our true self. It is characterised by labels, masks, images, and judgments. The ego seeks to pull us down with negative comments and shadow thoughts which are worse for some people than others. Without conscious awareness of these worry thoughts, it can be easy to become lost in a sea of negativity if you allow your ego to control your life.

In contrast, using positive affirmations helps you to connect with your wise higher self. The part of you that loves you unconditionally, flaws and all. The part of you that sees the best in others, and is innately loving, powerful, creative, compassionate and altruistic.

Affirmations can be a great visual reminder if you write them up and put them around your home or workspace. Or you could look at investing in a calendar from Hay House which provides you with a beautiful new affirmation every day.

I had a calendar in 2014 which the lovely Ashleigh of Zest Natural Health gave me. Ash was by my side at the ‘You Can Do It Conference with Louise, and I think she’ll agree that this stuff is life changing. You can also get Louise Hay affirmation cards from the Hay House website.

Mirror Work As a Life Saver

Louise Hay also believes in using mirrors to accelerate personal growth. The practice involves looking into the mirror and repeating positive affirmations. This is something you can do first thing in the morning, or throughout the day. Our natural tendency can be to look into a mirror and be critical or negative – sometimes without even realising it. We might look at ourselves and say ‘you look old today, or tired, or overweight, or you have too many freckles!’ Sometimes things we wouldn’t even say to our worst enemy.

Mirror work teaches instead, to pause, smile and say something kind – just like we would to a friend.

 

Lastly….. Always Keep Doing the Work

I would like to add a little caution that there are times in our lives when affirmations may not be the right thing. If for example you are going through intense despair, a broken relationship, depression, or other emotional issues you may need to work through these in a different way.

Affirmations cannot replace actually doing the inner work. Seeking help from a counsellor, psychologist or trusted friend is a good way to peel back the layers and explore what is really going on for you.

As a great example of this – recently I was experiencing some physical pain. Despite my years of self-help and work on my own emotional stuff, it actually took a good friend and amazing healer Kiarna of Alchemy By Ador to spot that anger was the underlying issue!

Once I physically released this anger with stomping my feet, punching a pillow, yelling, journalling (and burning the pages) I felt so much better. Of course, the next day the pain was gone.

Yep, this stuff actually works. 🙂

 

Enjoy your affirmations! Til next time xx