Affirmations Do Work: Affirm Your Way to Writing Success
Recently I read a post on one of my favourite sites, mindbodygreen, entitled ‘ Why Affirmations Don’t Work and What You Should be Doing Instead .’ I’d started an argument with the author before the page had even finished downloading. A few minutes later I realised that for many years I’d actually agreed with the author, and in some ways I still do. The word ‘affirmations’ is often associated with new age thinking, get rich quick schemes and unrealistic positive expectations. If by saying that ‘affirmations work’, you mean that you expect to sit in front of the TV eating junk food and affirming ‘I’m rich, famous and beautiful’ and have it suddenly become true, then it’s perfectly accurate to say that they don’t work. But at its root, the word ‘affirmation’ simply means ‘the act of affirming something’, and affirm has two meanings: to state something publicly, and to offer emotional support or encouragement. So affirmations are simply statements of support, made pub...