PsychCentral: All About Positive Affirmations for Depression

"Practicing positive affirmations for depression — a technique of repeating optimistic thoughts and phrases — may be able to positively influence your mental health.

Positive affirmations are thoughts or phrases used to increase optimistic feelings and counteract the effects of negative thinking.

Repeating positive affirmations to yourself may help retrain your brain to think in a more balanced way.

A 2014 study suggested that using affirmations may help some people gain a broader perspective of themselves and their current situation.

A 2016 studyTrusted Source using MRI evidence suggested that affirmations activate certain parts of the brain associated with self-processing, self-insight, and valuation.

Research from 2015Trusted Source indicated that positive affirmations can potentially have an impact on neural pathways in the brain.

Affirmations can redirect thought processes in the brain. They may be useful to help manage the unhelpful thoughts associated with depression.

Counteracting negativity bias

“The brain has a naturally developed ‘negativity bias,’ [which helped keep] the earliest humans alive and fairly safe,” says Carrie C. Mead, a licensed professional clinical counselor at Maryland Counseling in Westminster, Maryland.

“However, in modern times, this same mechanism means that we are pre-wired, to some degree, to see the negatives in each situation more predominately than the positives.”

According to Mead, positive affirmations may help counteract this negativity bias.

How to start using positive affirmations

Try choosing one affirmation at a time and making it a part of your daily routine. You may discover it’s easier and more impactful than you realized.

Tips for incorporating positive affirmations

To start practicing positive affirmations for depression, you could try:

• setting aside a few minutes to repeat one affirmation right when you wake up or immediately before bed
• writing an affirmation on a sticky note and placing it on your bathroom mirror and repeating it every time you see it
• adding affirmations to your daily exercise, commute, or meditation time

18 positive affirmations for depression

If you want to get started but don’t know where to begin, these 18 phrases may be a good place to start:

1. I am safe right now.
2. It is not my fault that I have depression.
3. There are reasons for my depression, and I will overcome them.
4. I am strong and resilient.
5. I have made it through other challenges, and I will make it through this one.
6. My depression does not define me.
7. I have agency in my life, and depression does not need to control me.
8. I am valuable even when I am not productive.
9. I deserve happiness and joy.
10. I am enough and don’t have to prove anything to anyone else.

You don’t have to be a born writer to create your own positive affirmations. Any phrase that represents your situation or line of thinking in a more balanced way can help.

Create statements to balance negative thinking

When you have an unhelpful thought, try to come up with statements that might contradict it. According to Mead, the goal of positive affirmations is to balance the negative thoughts, rather than eliminate them completely.

Practice thinking new thoughts

Mead notes that the thoughts with more helpful statements can help you feel more hopeful. Repeating unhelpful thoughts can disrupt your inner world. But replacing those thoughts with hopeful, positive statements can help you feel more hopeful and calm.

Although positive affirmations aren’t a cure for depression, they can be a helpful addition to a treatment plan for some. If you’re living with depression, it can be beneficial to reach out to your doctor or therapist for guidance.

Read the full article here!

Reflection:

Do you have any positive affirmations for yourself? Would you mind sharing them in the comments? How have they helped you?

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