Affirmations have been scientifically proven to lower stress and improve self-worth. The way it does this is that your brain starts acting as if anything you’re affirming has already happened, allowing you to let go of the stress surrounding it, and feel more positively about yourself.
We know that writing down affirmations through journaling can be powerful, as well as saying them out loud every day. But does listening to affirmations work?
In this post, we’re going to be talking about why you should be listening to recordings of affirmations in order to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as experience more confidence, and self-love, and start to live life authentically, just as you are.
Why Listen To Positive Affirmations
Positive affirmations are no longer this wishy-washy practice that only hippies believe in. Science now backs up positive affirmations as a way to “activate brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation” and if it’s good enough for world-renowned scientists, then it’s good enough for us.
If you’re not convinced yet and are wondering “does listening to affirmations work?” here are some of the positive benefits you can experience by listening to positive affirmations.
Reprogram Your Subconscious
If you’re sick of your brain telling you the same old story…you’re not good enough, you won’t become successful, you’ll be single forever, blah blah blah, then by listening to positive affirmations, you can reprogram your subconscious with new thoughts and patterns.
It’s basically like changing the channel on the TV after finding the remote that’s been lost for years.
Increase Mindfulness
Affirmations force you to calm down by drawing your attention to the mind. We all have thousands upon thousands of thoughts flowing through our minds every day, which come and go without us paying much attention to the messaging they’re filling our brains with.
Affirmations encourage you to pay more attention to your mind and fill it with intentional thoughts- because what you think is important.
Opens Your Mind To New Ideas
If you’ve been telling yourself that you can’t do something for years, you’ve probably closed your mind off to it even being a possibility.
If you listen to positive affirmations, your mind will slowly open up and change your thinking from “I could never do that” to “actually, YES I CAN DO THAT“.
As well as switching your mindset to a more positive one, this allows your mind to be open and receptive to new ideas instead of immediately shutting them down so that you can experience new opportunities and pivot your life in the direction you choose.
Some other benefits that people who listen to affirmations experience include:
- Reduced stress
- A more optimistic view of life
- Improved self-confidence
- Motivation to act on their goals
- Increased focus
- Better relationships
Listening To Positive Affirmations: How Does It Work
Our conscious mind only makes up around 5-10% of our total brain function. That means a whopping 90-95% of brain activity happens without your knowledge in your subconscious brain.
Surely then, that means in order to make affirmations work, we should be focusing on the subconscious brain.
“But it’s subconscious?!” I hear you say. Yes, by definition we cannot control what we’re thinking about when our subconscious takes over, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t train and influence it to respond to positive affirmations.
One of the best ways to do this is by listening to affirmations as you sleep. In order for this to work to the best of its ability, you want to target the brain when it goes into theta frequency.
Throughout the day when your mind is active, your brain is in the alpha or beta frequency, and it switches to the delta frequency when you’re in a deep sleep.
The theta frequency is that time in between the two, as you’re nodding off or just as you’re awakening, and it is the sweet spot for swaying your subconscious to take onboard positive affirmations.
So, to hack your subconscious, either create a playlist of pre-recorded affirmations or record your own. When you’re starting out, you will probably be more inclined to choose a pre-recorded playlist, but make sure you choose the affirmation tracks to add to it with care, and ensure that the affirmations align exactly with what you want to achieve.
Another tip is to ensure that your playlist is long enough to cover your whole sleep window as well as a bit of time before sleep as you wind down and enter the theta stage and the same as you wake up. If, for example, you usually sleep for 8 hours, create a playlist of affirmations that is 9 hours long and end your day feeling grateful, positive, and entering the ‘act as if’ high-vibrational frequency.
This is also a fantastic way to start your day in a peaceful, stress-free way, since most of us are stressing ourselves out from the second we wake up, without even knowing it, through buzzing alarms and rushed morning routines. Starting your morning listening to affirmations will give you a few moments of intentional calm before you go about your busy day.
Listening to positive affirmations at these times is also a great habit to eliminate screen time before bed and as you wake up.
All of this is not to say that listening to positive affirmations frequently throughout the day won’t work. On the contrary, the more you listen to your affirmations, the more stuck in your head they will become, and no matter how much doubt you have when you start, you will experience a shift in your brain as you go from a state of total disbelief to true, unwavering belief in what you are affirming.
After all, as the Buddha said “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”
Don those headphones throughout the day to feel the impact of your affirmations more quickly. After listening to affirmations in the theta state, another excellent time to hit play is when you’re commuting as this is a time when you have nothing else to focus on.
Close your eyes (unless you’re driving!) and use this time to visualize and allow the words to sink in.
Other times you could listen to affirmations are when you’re in the gym, cooking, in the shower, journaling, or walking.
Final Thoughts On Listening To Positive Affirmations
Does listening to affirmations work? HELL YEAH.
Listening to positive affirmations as often as you can helps to drive away negative feelings of self-doubt, frustration, fear, and inadequacy and replace them with joy, self-love, confidence, and gratitude, and allows you to emit radiant energy that everyone around you will feel pulled towards.
If you love affirmations, try these:
