Affirmations in

New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a new religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy ...

and

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

terminology refer primarily to the practice of positive thinking and self-empowerment—fostering a belief that "a positive mental attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything." More specifically, an affirmation is a carefully formatted statement that should be repeated to one's self and written down frequently. For affirmations to be effective, it is said that they need to be present tense, positive, personal, and specific.

New Thought

The

movement is not part of New Age but does share certain practices. This concept has grown popular due to Rhonda Byrne's '' The Secret'' (also a

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

) These books and teachers express similar ideas to

Napoleon Hill Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted tha ...

's book ''

Think and Grow Rich ''Think and Grow Rich'' is a book written by Napoleon Hill and Rosa Lee Beeland released in 1937 and promoted as a personal development and self-improvement book. He claimed to be inspired by a suggestion from business magnate and later-philanthr ...

''. Byrne was inspired in particular by Wallace D. Wattles' 1910 book '' The Science of Getting Rich''. Affirmations are also referred to in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Neuro Associative Conditioning "NAC" as popularized by Anthony Robbins, and

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...

. A related belief is that a certain critical mass of people with a highly spiritual consciousness will bring about a sudden change in the whole population. And that humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. In 1984 Louise Hay, a Religious Science practitioner, published '' You Can Heal Your Life'', a guide to changing thoughts and beliefs. Hay's affirmations are designed to help the user re-program their thought patterns, the intention being that harmful underlying beliefs which Hay believes psychologically support illness will be replaced with healing beliefs, and thus remove a barrier to healing.

New Age

Esther Hicks, author of the ''Law of Attraction'' series, advocates using affirmations when one is already in a state of happiness and peace. New-Age affirmations come in different forms: * spiritual talks * lectures * classes * affirmative images, * affirmative words * affirmative videos *

mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

chants

Rhonda Britten

According to Rhonda Britten, affirmations work best when combined with acknowledgements because the acknowledgements build up a backlog of results in one's mind to prove that one can do what one is affirming. For example, the acknowledgement "I bought a good pair of sneakers and some gym clothes" could complement the affirmation "I can reach my goal of losing 20 pounds." The goal is to focus on steps one has taken toward accomplishing one's goals rather than criticizing oneself for what one has not yet accomplished, or could theoretically have accomplished but did not.

Scientific research

A 2009 study found that present tense positive affirmation had a positive effect on people with high self-esteem, but a detrimental effect on those with low self esteem. Individuals with low self-esteem who made present tense (e.g. "I am") positive affirmations felt worse than individuals who made positive statements but were allowed to consider ways in which the statements were false. Individuals with low self-esteem who made future tense affirmations (e.g. "I will") saw positive effects. Some studies have found that

self-affirmation Self-affirmation theory is a psychological theory that focuses on how individuals adapt to information or experiences that are threatening to their self-concept. Claude Steele originally popularized self-affirmation theory in the late 1980s,Stee ...

s, which involve writing about one's core values rather than repeating a positive self-statement, can improve performance under stress. An fMRI study in 2016 demonstrated the role of two reward and valuation brain regions (

ventral striatum The striatum (: striata) or corpus striatum is a cluster of interconnected nuclei that make up the largest structure of the subcortical basal ganglia. The striatum is a critical component of the motor and reward systems; receives glutamater ...

and

ventromedial prefrontal cortex The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a part of the prefrontal cortex in the mammalian brain. The ventral medial prefrontal is located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of ...

) as primary pathways associated with self-affirmation. Self-related processing and prospection associated regions in the brain were further associated with objectively measured positive behavioral changes following future-oriented self-affirmations. Recent studies have suggested that affirmative practices incorporating mindfulness have shown a positive relationship with emotional self-regulation by improving mental well-being and fostering a more focused and non-judgmental state of mind.

References

{{Reflist New Age practices New Thought beliefs

New Thought

New Age

Rhonda Britten

Scientific research

See also

References