Feelings of anxiety can be debilitating, and many people will experience a form of anxiety at some stage in life. Anxious feelings are often rooted in unhelpful thoughts and belief patterns.
Mental health affirmations can help stop anxiety by removing negative thoughts that manifest as frequent bouts of fear and worry. Learn how affirmations can be used to manage your anxiety symptoms and help turn your life around.
Why Affirmations Are Important for Anxiety Management
Mental health refers to your cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being. Essentially, it’s how you think, feel, and behave.
Our emotional state constantly changes based on our thoughts, which causes the brain to release neurotransmitter chemicals that control our feelings, mood, and body functions. In addition, it’s been proven that your thoughts can rewire your brain over time with repetition and via neuroplasticity.
Anxiety disorders begin in your thoughts before they manifest into physical symptoms. Therefore, it’s important to restructure your thoughts and transcend negative and anxiety-producing thought patterns. Using positive affirmations is ideal for achieving that, as it introduces a new way of thinking.
Mental Health Affirmations Help Relieve Anxiety
Affirmations can be described as a form of positive self-talk. It’s a positive statement usually directed at you to achieve self-love and positive change while quashing fear and worry. They are used to challenge depressing, harmful, or anxiety-producing beliefs and thoughts.
Here are some examples of how affirmations help to manage and reduce the causes of anxiety:
Sometimes anxious thoughts become overwhelming and make it difficult to focus on more positive outcomes. Affirming yourself will help you regain control, change negative thought patterns, and improve your ability to overcome challenges.
55 Mental Health Affirmations for Anxiety Management
- My past experiences won’t stop me from having a successful future.
- I feel safe.
- I choose to react positively to all situations.
- Anxiety leaves my body as soon as I relax and slow my breathing.
- This, too, will pass.
- I trust the world will help me live my best life.
- I release tension whenever I exhale.
- I am strong and ready for change.
- This situation is challenging, but I will overcome it.
- I have plenty of talents to offer.
- I have so much pleasure in my life.
- I attract positive energy into my body.
- I am capable of overcoming anxiety.
- I feel calm.
- I transcend negative beliefs and attract positivity.
- I am freeing myself from stress.
- I can handle this.
- I am in control of my life.
- I face my feelings with confidence.
- I am safe, and everything is well in my world.
- I believe and trust in myself and my wisdom.
- I am successful.
- I choose to rise above negative feelings and thoughts.
- I choose to focus on the good.
- I am calm and collected.
- I feel calm and peaceful inside.
- I choose to accept and transcend my fears.
- I am liberating myself from fear, doubt, and judgment.
- I am enough.
- I can slow my breathing whenever I choose.
- I can overcome any situation if I remain courageous.
I can overcome any situation if I remain courageous.”
- I am in control of my mind.
- I can do it.
- I can persevere and stay strong.
- I am free from anxiety.
- I can overcome any stressful situation.
- I can make it happen.
- I’m loved. I’m important. I’m unique.
- I can overcome anything with patience and practice.
- I can handle change.
- I am divinely guided and protected at all times.
- My happy thoughts help to create my healthy body.
- I deserve all that is good.
- I can cross all bridges with ease and joy.
- I do not have to prove myself to anyone.
- I am greeted with love wherever I go.
- The tools I need are always revealed to me precisely at the right time.
- As I say yes to life, it says yes to me.
- I am at home in my body.
- I am happy and content.
- I live in limitless love, light, and joy.
- I trust the process of life.
- Every thought I think creates my future. I choose to think positively.
- I love and approve of myself.
- I am worthy.
How to Use Affirmations for Anxiety Management
Mental health affirmations are effective because of their ability to replace your negative beliefs and thoughts with positive ones. For long-lasting changes to your mental health, your affirmations should apply to your situation and what you want to change. They should be repeated regularly to solidify the change. You can use the examples we’ve provided as they are, modify them to suit your needs, or even use them as inspiration to create your own unique variations.
How to Create Your Mental Health Affirmations
In particular, when it comes to managing anxiety, using affirmations based on your reality will lead to a more significant impact. For affirmations that feel more natural and believable, you can write your own.
For example, let’s look at the following affirmation: “I am not afraid of change.” If the thought of change heightens your anxiety right now, repeating a finite statement like this alone is unlikely to remove the fear you feel. However, replacing it with a more believable and empowering statement is better, for example: “I am strong and ready for change.”
Start Affirmations with “I” or “My”
A first-person perspective will create a stronger link between the affirmation and your sense of self. This way, they’ll be more relevant to the change you want to experience and be more believable.
Use the Present Tense
Keep in mind that affirmations are different from goals, which are set for the future. The aim is not to tell yourself that something will happen eventually but that it is happening now.
You’ll need to believe that you are living these statements. With repetition, the chance of becoming that person increases, and eventually, your daily experience will align with the affirmation. For example, “I will make new friends” becomes, “I have the confidence to make new friends.”
How to Practice Your Affirmations
Telling yourself how awesome you are may seem bizarre and awkward at first. However, we can’t stress enough how powerful they become by regularly repeating them to yourself. Here are some methods you could use to ensure you say them regularly:
Your mind creates pictures to accompany words. Therefore, the words repeated in your affirmations will automatically create an involuntary related image in your mind. So, to help make your affirmations even more powerful, reinforce what’s happening by using visualization as you repeat them. For example, when using the “I have the confidence to make new friends” affirmation, you can picture yourself confidently going over to someone you don’t know to start a conversation.
Another tip to implement as you practice is to remember to take slow, relaxing breaths. Ensure you’re aware of your breathing and focus on the affirmation and feeling that comes with what you’re affirming.
Final Thoughts on Affirmations for Anxiety Management
Reciting mental health affirmations regularly can create a more positive life experience. For effectiveness and long-lasting change, repeat affirmations that resonate with the change you wish to see. Speak in the first person to affirm what already is, visualize the change, and notice your breath. It may sound like a lot to remember to do simultaneously, but it usually becomes second nature in no time. Check out this article for six ways to create an effective affirmation practice if you feel stuck.
And if you want more encouraging affirmations, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 71 Body Positive Affirmations to Feel Your Best
- 62 Positive Affirmations to Have Courage During Hard Times
- 25 Happiness Affirmations for Daily Positive Thinking
Finally, if you want a simple tool to record and recite these affirmations, then check out these 13 affirmations apps that help you create a positive mindset.