Affirmation cards ect

[Purplepussycat]

Aibu to think affirmation cards and such are just really weird. I’m taking like about the card the say stuff like ‘I am strong’ or ‘I believe in myself to get the job done ‘. To me they seem very bizarre but are flooding my sm.

I think if they help people feel good they are no bad thing.

Well, they say that half the battle of achieving something is believing you can. If it helps some people feel more able then that’s a good thing and seems like a pretty harmless thing, even if it doesn’t.

If it works for some people then great. I’m not sure what your issue is.

They helped me some years back when I was suffering g from very low self esteem.

I don’t understand how they would do anything . Why you would like at a card abs suddenly go ah now I’m strong, it makes no sense to me.

It isn’t “looking at a card”: it’s saying to yourself “I can do this, I am strong enough to do it, it’s within my capability” - which in turn makes you more likely to succeed than if you think “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough, I’m going to fail.”

Yeah I can't see the harm. It's a bit like hypnotherapy - it doesn't work for everybody but if you believe in it as a method of boosting self esteem then it must be effective to a level.

Writing it it down & seeing it in concrete form gives it psychological 'weight' & importance. That's why Super Nanny writes a House Rules poster & why primary classrooms have a behaviour rules poster . Affirmation cards help you challenge your negative thoughts. Its is a standard part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy The esercide where you write the negative thought, then challenge it as to whether that's really the case or if your catastrophising & being negative. It can really help when you have lost perspective & are spiralling into a tsunami of negativity.

I love mine. Every morning I shuffle them and turn over the top 3, then pick my fave as my motto for the day and put it behind my phone, and then I repeat myself throughout the day. Sure they aren’t necessary, but when you struggle with mental health they are wonderful to help keep focused on the positive.
Try them, you might love them

They sound like they help some people then but there really not ‘ me ‘ at all.

Thanks for this post, I have just downloaded two positive affirmations apps onto my phone. Thinking positive is the key to everything.

I personally loathe them, but clearly lots of people do seem to find them helpful, so I wouldn’t say I think it’s ‘weird’, just a personal preference really. My sister absolutely loves them, and shares loads of them - to the point where I regularly have to ‘snooze’ her on Facebook, because if I’m in a bit of mental health slump, they actually make me feel worse. But I do know that for some people that kind of thing is really helpful, so I guess it’s just a case of everyone being different; there’s no right or wrong. I loathe meditation as well, but it’s brilliant for some people - I suppose that’s a similar difference.

There’s a really good app called ‘I am’ which sends positive affirmations throughout the day. I find that when they appear randomly they really help as sometimes I’m feeling a bit down or negative and it helps. I recently told my friend about it who’s going through a break up and it’s helping her too. I don’t know if I would use actual cards though.

Of course it’s all a bit woo woo, but if it helps it really doesn’t matter!