Do Positive Affirmations Really Work?

Positive affirmations are a widely popular self-help and personal growth tool. But do they really work? Let's explore this question.

First, it’s important to understand what positive affirmations are. An affirmation is any kind of statement that confirms or affirms something. So for example, a positive affirmation like “I am loved” would tend to confirm a positive idea — that you are loved.

On the other hand, negative affirmations tend to confirm a negative idea, like "I am not loved." We receive affirmations of all kinds throughout our lives, some of them are highly positive, some are highly negative, and many are somewhere in the middle. 

Our brain synthesizes all of these statements and distills them in a way that, over time, affects our mindset and outlook on life. So if you are constantly receiving negative affirmation, then you will likely have a negative mindset. You can see this arise in various ways. Some people will have an overall negative, pessimistic mindset. Some people will only have a negative mindset about certain things. And the same can be true in reverse.

Understandably, many people who have a negative mindset want to change it to be more positive. And one popular tool is to use positive affirmations as a way to challenge negative thoughts, build a positive mindset, and strengthen self-belief. But does this practice really work? Can repeating certain statements actually affect your mental and physical health?

Of course, you could decide that positive affirmations “work” just by enjoying how they make you feel! But let's take a deeper dive into some of the research related to this topic. 

How does the brain react to positive affirmations? 

Studies indicate that positive affirmations have beneficial effects on one's psychological state. The National Institute of Health conducted a study that monitored neural activity during self affirmations as a way to see which areas of the brain affirmations activated. Brain activation is a key scientific way to see the true effects of positive self-talk. The NIH concluded that self-affirmation caused an increase in “brain systems associated with positive valuation” (seeing yourself as valuable and worthy), “self-related processing” (understanding and relating to yourself), and “emotion regulation.”

This study also showed that people who practice positive affirmations tend to focus more on future opportunities rather than dwell on the past. This is a necessary detail because it ties to the relevance of rumination in our health based on another NIH study: “Rumination is an emotional regulation strategy broadly characterized by repetitive reflection on negative thoughts, emotions, and past events, as well as the causes and consequences of those events and emotions.” In this discussion, the NIH concluded that rumination can lead to inflammation in the body, which highlights the connection between our thoughts and our mental and physical health.

How do positive affirmations affect our physical health?

Positive affirmations have been shown to be correlated with better health outcomes. Inflammation is connected to many chronic illnesses. But preventing something as broad as inflammation can feel like a large hurdle to overcome. That's why it is important to consider common habits that can cause inflammation – one being negative thought patterns, as mentioned above. In order to reduce its effect, the intentional use of positive affirmations can be a strong resource. Research from Johns Hopkins highlighted “the power of positive thinking” by showing how our outlook can shape our health. In this case, the study concluded that “people with a family history of heart disease who also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event within five to 25 years than those with a more negative outlook.”

How do positive affirmations help create a positive outlook? 

But what does a positive outlook mean? Can that be achieved in just a few minutes a day? We need to remember that we cannot control everything when it comes to our lives. Things happen that are outside of our own control. But we can introduce skills and practices to try and align ourselves with an overall more positive, adaptable mindset. By repeating positive affirmations, we coach ourselves into this kind of mindset, and that mindset has the potential to expand into the rest of the day. How we talk to ourselves before a test, an important meeting, or when we’re feeling off are all important times where this practice can be relied on as a tool.

Of course, there are a myriad of tools to help you foster a more positive and adaptable mindset. Positive affirmations are just one of them. Others include mindfulness, meditation, exercise, talk therapy, and healthy, supportive relationships. What works for one person may not be what's preferred by another.

Check out these positive affirmations to experience the impact of positive self-talk for yourself: