Whispers To The Brain: Why Affirmations Work

Affirmations aren't just feel-good phrases — they're a tool to rewire the brain. In this short talk, I’ll walk you through how daily affirmations can support your nervous system, shift long-held beliefs, and actually change your brain’s structure over time. As always, my talks are neuroscience-based and nervous system-friendly.

Transcript

Let's take a few moments to talk about why daily affirmations are more than just positive thinking,

And actually how they can help us ease anxiety,

Support recovery from depression,

And even help and support to heal trauma responses.

So here's the thing.

Your brain is constantly changing in response to what you feed it.

This is called neuroplasticity.

It's actually a process in the brain that helps to shape the brain and helps us stay adaptable to our environment.

And this is the exact reasons why affirmations can work.

So neuroplasticity means that our brain rewires itself based on repeated experiences.

Whatever you repeat,

A thought,

A belief,

A behavior,

Starts to become the brain's default sitting.

And that can actually go both ways,

And is used massively at the moment by marketing and social media companies in order to keep us hooked and stay with them.

For example,

If you spend your day scrolling social media or absorbing messages through that or through other media that you are mainly consuming,

Or movies,

Or music,

And you're getting feelings like,

I'm not good enough,

Or other people are better,

I have to do more because everyone is doing so many things all the time,

Or thoughts like,

I'll never get better,

Other people are always better than me,

Your nervous system hears those messages too.

Even if you are consciously aware of it,

And if you are not consciously aware of it.

Most of the time,

Specifically when you're not consciously aware of them.

And these messages,

They often trigger our threat system.

It's that part of the brain that's always scanning for danger.

And this system is very ancient,

It's very old,

It's helped us to survive tigers or other difficult and dangerous situations,

And it still does,

But today it gets hijacked by likes,

Emails,

And just endless,

Endless news.

And each little alert or judgment or thought is like a microdose of stress to that specific system,

And over time it wires the brain for anxiety,

Low self-worth,

And hypervigilance.

But here's the thing.

The exact same mechanism,

Repetition,

Emotional intensity,

And focus,

Is also what makes affirmations actually work,

And why we can use them to heal those negative thoughts and cycles.

So when you listen to daily affirmations,

Especially if you slow down and breathe and really feel them,

You're giving the brain new wiring to build from.

But here's the thing.

You don't necessarily need to attend to them.

You can also just let them run in the background while you're not putting your attention on it,

Because the brain cannot focus on two things.

Similarly,

I know that sounds counterintuitive to how we work and live nowadays,

But if we go to proper neuroscience,

The brain cannot multitask.

So when you focus on something else and those information just flow into your brain,

Your brain takes them on.

It repeats them as if it's its own message,

And if it hears it at some point from somewhere else,

It goes like,

Oh,

I know that,

I know this,

I've heard this before,

So this must be true.

So if someone then says,

You are good enough,

The brain goes like,

Oh,

I've heard this before,

It must be true.

So this is a very easy,

Positive feedback loop that we can use to help us feel better.

This needs to be done over time and repetitively.

We have to make this a priority when we feel unwell and we feed ourselves with news and social media to also feed ourselves with those positive affirmations and those good things about ourselves that we are good enough.

Of course,

This doesn't replace therapy or healing work,

But it supports the groundwork and it helps your brain relearn trust,

Presence,

And worth.

So next time you are listening to an affirmation,

Remember,

You're not just being positive,

You are actually rewiring your brain.

Reviews

This was a brilliant, concise and - inspiring - summation regarding the repetitive nature of our thinking patterns and the importance of what we hear and say to ourselves on a feedback loop. As someone with severe chronic health conditions, I often struggle with believing and truly feeling positive affirmations. But I also recognize that even statements like calling myself someone with severe chronic health conditions probably isn't healthy either!

On rare occasions I'll give affirmations a try but quickly give up because it feels distant, hollow, and disingenuous when I try telling myself that I'm healthy, healing, and that I feel great, when I actually feel quite the opposite.

I really appreciate the way Hannah shared the power of positive affirmations, and I now feel encouraged to try with a greater sense of regularity, and the awareness that it may take a lot of repetition over days or weeks until the affirmations sink in and I begin to believe them.

Long story long, I'm appreciative of this short talk of Hannah's because for the first time I have begun to believe that affirmations might actually work for me! In a case of meta-irony, I'll be re-listening to this talk many times over as a solid reminder of the power of words!

Thanks, Hannah!

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