I initially wrote the following for my February newsletter and realized it is all just way too wordy for a newsletter! So, here’s my in-depth explanation of how I use affirmations for myself and for my kiddo. I will most likely need to do a kiddo affirmation blog follow-up, but here’s the root of all of it!
Affirmations are where the crunchy side is going to come on out to play. I came to a recent realization that I still have some self-esteem issues in some areas of my life and that I need to work on that. While I am a firm believer that a lot of this ish needs to be dealt with in therapy and everybody needs therapy, there are just some things you can do on a mostly daily basis to help yourself out. Now, should you have a list of affirmations dealing in the areas of your life where you need a little boost? Sure. Absolutely. Can it be an unholy pain in the bupkis to come up with said list of affirmations? Sure. Absolutely. So, here are a few to kick off your month and you can add at will. I am nothing, if not helpful.
I should probably note that people deal in affirmations differently. I’m a reader by nature, but reading isn’t quite enough to pound these into my thick head. I personally record these into a voice app on my phone, one by one, leaving time to repeat it in between. After I’ve dropped off my daughter to daycare, on the drive home, I play the recording, repeating each one as it is said. If I’m blowing it off, I make myself do the whole shenanigans again and really stay present in it. If there’s one that makes me super uncomfortable, I hit the 30-second rewind button and dig in deep to repeat it. Does this all feel oddly like I’m talking to myself? Oh. Yeah. It really does. Do I actually feel like it’s doing something for me? Yeah, Yeah, I do. Am I going to oversell it by telling you what? Nope. Give it a go for a few days. See what happens. What’s the worst that happens? You look like a dork when literally absolutely no one is watching you? (Well, unless you’re holding a concert and do it on stage, then I suppose you might be in a rough spot.)
Actually, I wrote that all out and it still stands for those of you that want to do this for yourself. I have a podcast just for affirmations! The podcast covers just the affirmations, for both you adults and kiddos, and doesn’t have any excess chatter, so you don’t have to worry about me dropping an accidental swear word here and there. There are TONS of resources out there on affirmations, especially for adults and older kiddos. This is just a resource to help jump start you if you need it… or if you’re like me, do a Google search, get overwhelmed, shut down and do nothing… if diving into a carton of ice cream because of emotional overload and feelings of failure counts as nothing.
Kiddo Background - Also was initially intended for the Feb. Newsletter
Did you think I wasn’t going to live up to the intermittent granola mom title I’ve given myself? Please. Now, I don’t have any research immediately handy on boosting children’s self-esteem through the use of affirmations. I’m a teacher and I just have some background on kiddos in general and then used plain old logic beyond that. If affirmations are helping me to remember positive traits that I either have or want to possess, why wouldn’t this work for my kiddo, as well? Plus, this is a great way to remind her of traits she should possess, such as using her hands and feet politely. (Read: she was hitting people, without provocation, and was needing to knock that ish off) My kiddo is three and she has a pretty strong memory. So, I’ll be using these for a week or two and then either switching them up OR changing the order of them, so she’s forced to pay attention to what is being said when she repeats them.
I will also note that I was previously reminding her of these positive traits in negative situations, i.e. we don’t use our hands and feet to harm people WHILE she’s kicking the fudge out of me. Part of my goal with this, and this part has been successful for me, is to do consistent positive reinforcement during positive times. I’ve also found that this is a connection builder for the kiddo and myself. So, for whatever research I could offer you on positive reinforcement and repetition (and that does exist out there in the ether), this was enough for me and so I’m sharing it. Whether or not it works for anybody else… well… I can’t help you there. I’m just figuring this out as I go!
