Is it true that positive statements or positive affirmations or words are doing more harm than good to some people? I am sure you have heard or read that by repeating positive phrases or positive words to yourself daily can improve your life.
According to a study published in Psychological Science, it says that those with low self-esteem in fact became worse after chanting those positive statement or mantra “I am a lovable person”. But for those with high self-esteem, they just improved slightly, after repeating the positive affirmation.
Interestingly, those who with low self-esteem felt much better when they were allowed to have negative self-thoughts running in their heads.
The simple conclusion is the positive statement can only work for those who have believed in positive thoughts. They just merely reinforcing what they have already believed in the first place. However, for those low self-esteem people, after repeating the affirmative statement and they still don’t feel better, this only confirmed their thoughts that they are indeed no good.
For those low self-esteem folks will find the positive phrase is actually reminding them that they are not up to the accepted standards which society is expecting. So this is why it is actually worsen the situation.
When we talk about chanting daily positive affirmations, the first person who comes to mind is none other than the bestselling author of numerous books, including “You Can Heal Your Life”, Louise L. Hay. Even though you may have never read any of her books, I am sure you have seen her many colorful books in the bookstores.
Louis Hay encouraged her readers to read those positive affirmations, positive thoughts or quotes each day, randomly from her books and you’ll find that your outlook becomes a whole lot brighter. Many of her die-hard fans rave over her books as uplifting, reassuring, empowering, challenging, and grounding. Or they hail her stuff as a treasure trove of wisdom, which can change your life.
Personally I think it all depends on individual. As for me, I enjoy all those encouraging and uplifting words; be they from Louise Hay or some other people. There is no denial that words are powerful. I like to read and I get myself motivated by some of these powerful phrases or happy words.
Just like I love to watch those feel good and inspiring movies or read stories about inspirational people or life lessons sayings again and again to perk me up. After watching or reading them, they actually get me all motivated for the moment; which is good enough to get me all excited and do something. It could be a walk around the park, write a song or meditate.
I know we all cannot be feeling motivated all the time. But it is these uplifting quotes, feel-good movies or even romantic novels which give me a little push every now and then.
But I won’t go around repeating the positive statements or positive words to myself every day. The key thing is we have to act on our thoughts. As author-psychiatrist Gordon Livingston says in his book “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart”, that we are what we say, think, or how we feel, but we are what we do.