Here Are 3 Reasons Why Positive Words Can Help You Live a Happier Life
With the pandemic, it can often feel like we are living as Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day”. I surely feel this way every morning I wake up, my mind starts up with a list of things that I need to do which is almost identical to yesterday.
Wake up, make breakfast, meditate, drop my son to school, exercise, log in to my work computer, start work, lunch, pick up my son from school, finish my day at work, take a walk with my son, help setup dinner, have dinner, help with homework, get the kids bed, watch netflix with my wife, go to bed and repeat.
It’s a long list and if you do not have a list like this, please do not judge yourself, I am not here to show you how things are to be done, I am here to show you how much I have memorized my day after 7 months of #stayhome due to the pandemic.
Sure I can go and learn to play the piano or help a friend in need, like what Bill Murray did, but sometimes there is just not enough energy to do that. Often times, this gets me into this negative thought of “I didn’t try hard enough” or I “should” try to pick up something new. And when I realize that I was not able to because I am just too tired for it, then I get wrapped into this feeling of disappointment.
The struggle is real.
The feeling of wanting more out of life but sometimes caught in disappointment is a human experience. This missed expectation of what life should be can lead to an unhappy life. In the pandemic, this can be a daily thing. You may come out at the end of the day feeling unfulfilled and ungrateful, even though you have a beautiful family in front of you that keeps you busy all day. Or like me, you may start the day feeling unmotivated because you know that today is just going to be like yesterday.
But there’s a way out of all this.
Just like Bill Murray reinvents his day once he comes into the realization that he can do something differently everyday, we can also come into a realization. We can realize that even though our day may be the same as yesterday, but we can do them with a different attitude. We can wake up feeling grateful, exercise feeling deserving, working feeling grateful and spending time with family feeling fulfilled. We can be happy because we approach every moment in a positive state. How do we do that?
We remind ourselves that there is something great about this moment.
There’s a saying that we create our own realities using how we feel in the moment. Some who are enlightened may have this living flame in their heart that is always positive, compassionate and aware of their own emotions as it moves left or right. But for us common people (like myself), there are positive affirmations. Positive affirmations are words that makes you feel good about yourself. They are words that inspire you, maybe in a form of a quote, or a word or an audio or video recording that you listen to. The form does not matter, what matters is how it makes you feel.
Here are 3 reasons why Positive Affirmations can make you happy
- They start with “I am”. There’s nothing better than making a positive sentence personal by putting two letters / words before them. I and am. Positive affirmations makes you feel happy because they tag themselves to you. And when you say it out loud or to yourself, you have nothing else to do but to believe it.
- They do not start with not. See what I did there? We are used to tell ourselves or others “not” to do something. But the fact that we are putting a “no” in our statement still enforces the thing that we are mentioning. For example, we can say “Do not be mean to yourself”. In the end, we may end up still remembering the word “mean”. But instead positive affirmations say something like “Be kind to yourself”, which enforces the word “kind”.
- They include the word “be”. In my practice to remove the limiting beliefs I have about money, I am often taught that in order to afford something, I must first believe that I already have it. The secret to manifestation is in your imagination. Believing that you have something that you don’t actually have is how you can get anything. And all of that comes from focusing in “be-ing” instead of “do-ing”. Being is a feeling and positive affirmations typically has the word “be” or focuses on the concept because it is meant to make you feel a certain way.
So now it’s your turn.
Can you create your own positive affirmation that can help you remove your limiting beliefs? What are the things that are limiting you from having the things that you deserve? (please share in the comments)
I’ll use mine for an example.
I want to be patient. I want to be patient with my kids, with my wife, with my parents and most importantly with myself. Oh and don’t forget to be patient with the pandemic situation that we are all in.
How would I create my own positive affirmation that can help me live a happier life?
Start with “I am”. Remove the “not”. And include the word “be”.
Be patient.
I am patient.
Sometimes the best way to express something is to keep it simple. In simplicity, comes the opportunity to expand it to bigger and better things.
How will Positive Affirmations Help You Improve Your Happiness
I have a motivational and inspirational quote in every room I stay in within the house. It does not fill up the walls, it just has to be strategically placed. When I first started with using positive affirmation, I put it above my toilet. I wanted to make sure that every time I use the bathroom for a number one, I could read the quote and change the way I felt. The very first quote I chose comes from Marianne Williamson that says this:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I don’t know why I chose such a long quote but all I know that it spoke to me. It caught all of my fear of what others may think of me, and my tendency for holding back on the things that like to do. The quote makes me feel free.
I printed this on an 8.5x11 inch paper using my own printer and put it on a frame. And I read it every day.
Nowadays, I have quote I put on my bathroom mirror that I picked up from a meditation class and a framed poster in my office to remind me to do the best I can and leave the rest for tomorrow. The quotes I put on my wall reminds me to be aligned with my own values. It also makes me feel happy.
When I am caught with anxiety about money after realizing that my bank account falls under a threshold (it happens!), I read money affirmations from an app I download to my phone. It has 25 affirmations that I read to myself to remind me that money comes from many sources and that I deserve to receive it. When I feel down and incapable, I listen to a youtube video in my car that repeats what I am capable of. My creativity, my strength and my willingness to learn.
We live in an information age where everything that you need is available online because someone else out there have had the same problem as you and they are more than happy to help you. All you have to do is search on google, or go to an etsy store. There are tons of resources you can follow.
When you make the decision to be happy, positive affirmations will continue to remind you that you deserve it. That you can be happy. Just like a muscle, with repetition, that muscle will grow. The more you remind yourself your “I am” daily in a positive way, the sooner you will grow your positivity muscle.
And before you know it, you would not have it any other way.
Be Happy. You deserve it.
