Affirmations, ugh. How are strange mantras that I ruminate over supposed to alter my life?
That essentially captures my attitude toward affirmations over the past few years. “I radiate love, and others reflect love to me” just didn’t — and still doesn’t — do the trick for me. As a highly sensitive introvert, I need my days to retreat and recover. On these days, I do not and cannot radiate love.
Maybe it’s the fake it ‘till you make it attitude I can’t quite relate to; I’m a very pragmatic person, and thus, lying to myself makes everything worse than before.
One day, though, I stumbled upon an affirmation that threw all my previous beliefs aboard:
Today is the best day ever.
It was my perfect entry-level for affirmations. And it worked. Heck, not only did it work, it transformed my life. And there’s plenty of science supporting that this affirmation will transform your life, too.
The Power of “the Best Day Ever”
I remember the day I first applied this affirmation. I had been having sporadic 5 a.m. wake-ups due to sleeplessness for a few weeks. — often with a racing heart that made me feel as if my chest was going to explode.
As the hot water from the shower rained down on my throbbing head, I started singing, “Today is the best day ever,” to myself, at first in disbelief. I also mumbled the affirmation under my mask with more assurance as I placed my lunch order.
Affirmations are a tool for perspective change, not a way to deceive myself, I quickly realized.
My anxious thoughts began to quiet down as soon as I caught sight of people grinning at me and felt the sun’s warmth on my skin. It was as if someone had turned down the loud music in a place where you’re trying to have a conversation.
Using affirmations scientifically
Since that time, I have been both delighted and perplexed by the power of affirmations. I needed to understand the science behind this. Do we really have such a stupid brain? Are the “lies” we tell ourselves actually true?
The quick and easy response is yes.
The complicated scientific explanation is that affirmations can strengthen neural connections. They cause a brain area involved in processing positive evaluations of oneself and self to become more active.
Why does this happen? As the study reveals, we alter our behavior and become more capable of overcoming challenges and dangers.
Affirmations, or rather our subconscious mind, are a technique to reverse the negativity-chaos that our brains produce.
Why It’s Vital to Have “the Greatest Day Ever”
Affirmations are now more significant than ever in today’s environment. Every media outlet we use mostly focuses on bad news, which has more detrimental effects than we may imagine.
You recall unpleasant news better than positive news due to negativity bias.
Your mind is prodded by confirmation bias to look for unfavorable facts everywhere. You begin to think (subconsciously) to yourself, “Hmm, so the news was accurate, after all, the world truly is a nasty place.”
The effect is strengthened by the availability heuristic, which makes your mind believe that the information you can remember is more crucial than the information you can’t.
But what if we could change the situation by encouraging optimism?
It can seem strange at first to tell oneself, “This is the finest day ever,” yet consider how our perspective shifts:
You start out by telling yourself that this is the finest day ever. (Remember how you built those neuronal pathways?)
Now, availability heuristic and confirmation bias start to work for you rather than against you.
You enter a state of cognitive ease, a psychological phenomenon that leads you to accept as true what is natural and comfortable to you. When a skilled salesperson persuades you to purchase their product, this could become your worst nightmare, but cognitive ease can also lead your mind to believe that today really is the best day ever.
Thus, a key to our daily happiness and an antidote to negativity may be to say, “Today is the best day ever.”
How “the Best Day Ever” Can Make You Think Differently
You’ll notice that as the day progresses, you begin to notice beautiful things that you had previously overlooked. You will transform mistakes into learning opportunities, grudges into pardons, and—I know this sounds shocking—negative thinking into constructive thinking.
Your thoughts will frequently be, “Ooh, so that’s why it’s the best day ever.”
The best day ever is right now.
Because you don’t need to feel bad or, God forbid, guilty about that nap you took. – a hindrance to your productivity. No, you just needed some well-deserved downtime to recharge.
The finest day ever is right now.
You don’t complain about the rain because you see it as an opportunity to sing, dance, and laugh in the rain outside, or to go inside and enjoy the soothing sound of the raindrops.
The finest day ever is right now.
Because you don’t add to the difficulty of life; regardless of how bizarre today’s happenings may be, you are certain that you will make the most of them. And no matter how challenging the difficulties are, you will continue to gain knowledge from them throughout your life.
The finest day ever is right now.
Considering that you give it a chance to be.
Final Thought
Affirmations may seem to be ethereal, spiritual ideas when seen from the outside. I can attest to this; believe me. Nevertheless, you will find that these subtle mantras have much more in store for you if you examine the science behind them and put them to use in your daily life.
You may improve your life by using affirmations.
They initially influence your subconscious mind, then your awareness, and after they have altered your behavior, you become aware of the change.
Take comfort in the fact that this is the finest day ever. Just give it a few days’ worth of trying. You’ll eventually stop telling yourself that today is the finest day ever and begin really living that statement.
There won’t be perfect days every single day. Yet, by repeating this statement, you give each new day the potential to be. And that’s a fantastic beginning for changing your life.