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Anything you say can and will be used against you.

While this is a required warning for police officers to say to suspects before questioning, this statement can also be a helpful warning to anyone who knows about the power their tongue possesses. 

I See Power. 

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. – Proverbs 18:21 (KJV)

 Words have power. 

Now, let me say that again for the people in the back. I don’t think they heard me.

WORDS. have. POWER!

See, even written words have power too. And with that power, comes great responsibility. 

Your tongue is like a weapon. You can either use it to speak goodness and life into others or you can use it to destroy and put curses or wish death upon people. The choice is yours.

In the movie Cool Runnings, Yul Brenner does a great job at speaking life into his timid teammate Junior Bevil, with these motivational words: “I see pride. I see POWER…”. Junior then repeats the words to himself and is instantly boosted with lots of self-confidence. Check it out here!

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Whether good or bad, it’s some really heavy stuff to know that we all have the power to speak life and death into other people’s lives or situations and make a noticeable change. 

Public speakers, pastors, teachers, activists, coaches, politicians are some popular examples of individuals who use their power of speech to change people’s lives.

But Josie — what about the individual self, you may ask? Can I –human– speak life and death into my life or situation? 

Yes, my answer is yes.

In fact, a major way one can speak life or death into their life is through positive and negative affirmations.

*I am not a doctor, life coach, or healthcare professional. My blog posts are just my opinions and the results of things that either worked for me or didn’t. I am just passionate about sharing my experiences and providing tips on self-care and personal development. 

What are Positive or Negative Affirmations?

A Positive or negative affirmation is the act of practicing positive or negative thinking and self-improvement statements to affirm what is on its way to becoming true or stating statements as if they are already true. It also describes how people view themselves and their circumstances.

With every new day, one can see how positive and negative affirmations play a major role in the mental and critical thinking of the mind. 

Knowing this, the key to understanding which type of positive or negative affirmation to use on yourself lies after these two simple words: I AM.

Negative Affirmations

Now, I must admit that I am my own worst critic sometimes. Growing up, negative affirmations used to sneak up on me and run amuck in the quiet spaces of my mind. 

With thoughts like am I really loved or why am I so dark, they were doing more damage than good to my overall inner health and it also affected how I saw the outside world.

During those moments of negative thinking/criticizing, I definitely learned that:

Whatever you tell yourself, you are absolutely right.

Therefore, my advice would be to stop that right now before it’s too late. 

Stop telling yourself negative and critical affirmations like: —

I am not enough (you are though!)

I am not pretty (child, stop lying!)

I am not capable (no, you’re more than capable!)

I am not smart (yes, you are!)

Negative affirmations such as these invite dark feelings of depression, anxiety, stress, and the inability to believe in yourself. 

Be very careful with how you use affirmations because, with it, you hold the power to influence how deeply you feel about yourself on the inside and how you perceive the world on the outside. 

Now, I know it’s easy to say stop telling yourself negative affirmations, but how can you — when you might not even be aware that you’re saying or thinking negatively about yourself?

AAAA+ Battery

I know it’s corny, but I call this solution the AAAA+ battery because it’s going to give you the 4 power words to stop negative affirmations right in its’ tracks. I know – so cheesy, but please go with it lol.

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Awareness

First up is awareness.

Honestly, I think to be fully aware, you — yourself — has to know that a particular thought or saying actually exists before it is a problem. 

The power of choosing what to do with that awareness matters too. If you’re aware that a problem exists but you choose to ignore it as if it doesn’t exist, then the act of being truly aware is lost.     

Sometimes, I’m not even aware that the thoughts I am telling myself are hurting my inner and outer energy of how I see life. 

When I was younger, I used to think to myself all the time that I was too dark. 

Seeing depictions of light-skinned people in the media and being the only “dark-skinned” person in some of my classrooms didn’t help my thoughts at all. 

I didn’t really think nothing of it; I just thought this was the right way of thinking — I am just too dark.  Looking back, I see that it was a lot on my mental health and could have caused a lot of harm to my outer body. 

Before going to college, I was not aware that this way of thinking was not okay. Once I became aware of the problem, acknowledgment followed. 

Acknowledge

To acknowledge that something is wrong is to accept or admit to yourself that the problem that exists, needs to be addressed and fixed immediately. After admission, you can also think about how this problem has affected you in the past and how it is still affecting every part of your life now. 

When I would think about how dark I was, it would affect my mood in a negative way, my self-esteem would be really low around others, and the thoughts I would have,  sometimes led to other negative affirmations like I am so ugly or I am really unattractive. 

Dangerous stuff, I know.  

But once I acknowledged the existence of the problem, I truly was able to move on, apologize to myself, and put in the action to fix it.

Apologize 

When apologizing, please be kind to yourself. It helps to be in a place that is quiet, calm, and isolated from others so that you can fully be vulnerable to understanding the seriousness of the situation. Apologizing means you are resolving past wounds, dedicating yourself to starting anew, and refocusing your mind onto some much-needed progress.

You can start off by saying something like I’m aware that saying *negative affirmation here* affects the perception of how I view myself in a very negative way. Today, I am acknowledging and accepting that this is a problem and I need to fix it. Please accept my apology for the past pain I’ve inflicted on myself and I will work on feeding my vibrations with positive affirmations.

Action

After the apology, this is where the real work begins.

It’s time to see yourself differently in the world. Every day you wake up, you can start off with stating some kind of positive affirmation to yourself. 

The Power of I Am

This part really excites me because it shows how to use your superpower words effectively. As stated before, positive affirmation is the act of practicing positive thinking or self-improvement statements to affirm something. 

So with that being said, positive affirmations can also begin with you or aka I am.

And since it all begins with you, you have the power to speak life into yourself and to your circumstances: 

I am loved.

I am worthy.

I am enough.

I am smart.

I am powerful.

I am motivated.

I am created with a purpose.

I am healthy.

I am successful.

I am strong.

I am rich.

I am prosperous.

I am amazing.

I am patient.

I am peaceful.

I am open-minded.

I am loyal.

I am beautiful.

I am more than enough.

These positive words show that the power has always been within you, you just got to tap into them and use them wisely. 

Also, it’s not enough just to think/say it either, you have to fully believe in the positivity and let it speak through you by the power of your tongue.

For my spiritual self-care, I like to begin my day with morning prayers like: Thank you God for my life. Thank you for everything you have given me. I am grateful. I am humbled before you. Thank you for creating me and making me new every day. I am beautiful. My dark skin is beautiful. I am forgiven. I am loved. I am strong. I am a queen.

And this thought process literally sets the pace of the day for me.

Now, please keep in mind that from time to time, negative affirmations or critical thinking will try their very best to sneak up on you when you least expect it. With the power of your tongue, you can decide whether those affirmations come directly from you or if they actually exist within the four corners of your mind.

Related Post: How to Overcome Self-Doubt As A New Blogger

Moreover, if those negative affirmations do come a-knocking, just know that you have the AAAA+ battery pack to back you up. 

Now, Let’s Discuss:

What other positive affirmations that include I am can you think of?

Let me know down in the comments below.