It is possible that there will be affirmations where your child does not have any evidence readily available to support it. If that is the case, and either you or your child want the affirmation to apply to them, you can instead create situations where they can have the experience of embodying that affirmation for themselves. Most of us have numerous abandoned inner parts, but the most common one that we’re disconnected from is the inner child.

As nice as it would be if your child only believed positive things about themselves and never experienced negative emotions, such a thing is also unrealistic. Positive a ffirmations are not about completely eliminating negative thoughts or beliefs. Rather, they are about helping your kids to remember the positive things and not dwell too much on the negatives. Self-affirmations have been shown to decrease health-deteriorating stress (Sherman et al., 2009; Critcher & Dunning, 2015);Gilbert, P. (2014). The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53, 6–41. DOI:10.1111/bjc.12043 To get the most benefit from mirror affirmations, it’s important to practice regularly. Set aside a few minutes each day to repeat your affirmations, and try to make it a part of your daily routine. Most mantras are without any apparent verbal meaning, but they are thought to have a profound underlying significance and are in effect distillations of spiritual wisdom.”

After all, what better opportunity for that forgotten part to finally grab our attention than face-to-face in front of a mirror? That’s why I wrote this post. To encourage everyone to use affirmations as a way of developing a successful mindset and finding the focus and motivation to get what they want. Just imagining yourself doing something — like sky diving or re-hashing an argument with your partner —results in those same areas of the brain that activate when actually in these situations to be activated just when imagining them.Most people who have suffered from anxiety will likely know how important it can be to cut off negative thought patterns before they begin to spiral. These affirmations can be used at any time, and even those who don’t typically feel anxious may find them useful during stressful moments. I put these exact affirmation & motivation cards on my mirror, look at myself, and repeat it out loud every day. Even when I feel dumb. Even if what I’m saying isn’t true right now, I’m giving my brain a positive vote for the person I want to be. If designing your own affirmation cards is not for you, that’s no problem! We happen to have plenty of affirmation cards for kids and other affirmation-related resources available here at Twinkl.

Affirmation cards for kids should only contain positive affirmations that carry meaning for kids, and, more specifically, for your kids. There is not much point in a child repeating an affirmation card that says “I always make my weekly KPIs” any more than there’s much point in an adult reading an affirmation card that reads “I always do my homework”.As inherently positive statements, affirmations are designed to encourage an optimistic mindset. And optimism in itself is a powerful thing. In terms of reducing negative thoughts, affirmations have been shown to help with the tendency to linger on negative experiences (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). When you regularly use positive affirmations, even if you don’t feel they are true right now. Helps to convince your brain into taking them as fact. And when your brain believes something, science has shown that your actions tend to follow.