7 Positive Affirmations to Improve Your Well-Being

The people in your life or the media you consume may influence how critically you think about yourself. Repeating one or more of these 7 positive affirmations can have health benefits and boost self-efficacy.

Diets fail for many reasons, one of which is that people often focus on shedding pounds rather than healing their relationship with food and their bodies.

This can create a cycle of fast weight loss followed by weight gain, sometimes referred to as yo-yo dieting. It’s counterproductive and can lead to disordered eating and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Positive affirmations, which are simple statements that you repeat to yourself, can help you reframe the way you think and influence feelings and behavior.

While they are not magic bullets, repeating these affirmations for a few minutes daily may help redirect negative thought patterns and boost motivation and self-confidence.

Here are 7 positive affirmations to improve your well-being and deepen your connection with your body.

1. I am healthy and strong

Diet culture tells us that bodies should look a particular way, and so, we can lose ourselves trying to achieve the unattainable. But remember that the old adage holds true: Bodies come in all shapes and sizes.

Instead of chasing an arbitrary ideal and a certain appearance, shift your thinking to focus on function. After all, the ideal body is your body at its healthiest state.

This affirmation makes use of your brain’s neuroplasticity, or its ability to change and adapt. In other words, by repeating this affirmation, your brain may begin to take it as fact. This can be especially helpful if you feel that this affirmation is somewhat aspirational.

Thus, repeating this, alongside other affirmations, may cause your brain to take aspiration as fact and subsequently improve health behaviors.

By prioritizing aspirational thinking toward your body’s abilities, you remove focus from the numbers on the scale or the size of your pants. This can help align your thoughts with a weight that’s appropriate for you.

Summary

Repeating the affirmation “I am healthy and strong” may encourage your brain to see it as fact. This can improve your relationship with your body.

2. I appreciate what my body can do

Weight and body mass index (BMI) can be problematic ways to measure health. Focusing on the many amazing things your body already does and can do helps to reframe your relationship with it.

This affirmation may help transform the way you consider your body, shifting your focus toward function rather than numbers on a scale.

Maybe it’s the baby it carried, the meal it cooked, the cancer it beat, or the laughter it continues to produce despite hardship. Acknowledge its many accomplishments thus far, however big or small.

Rather than viewing your body as something to continually fix, this affirmation focuses on what it already achieves. In other words, it may help you realize that a diet doesn’t need to correct your body.

And don’t stop here. Make a list and return to it from time to time.

Summary

This affirmation takes the focus off appearance and instead focuses on your body’s abilities. This is a more mindful approach than focusing on the numbers on the scale.

3. I move every day

Maybe formal exercise doesn’t do it for you, and that’s OK. Reframe the idea of “working out” to simply mean “movement that feels good.”

If spin class feels like a drag, do activities that feel good to your body and mind. Maybe it’s gentle stretching, hiking a scenic trail, or dancing at home to fun music.

Reframing your thoughts about exercise may encourage you to move more in your daily life, which can improve your brain health and overall well-being.

Summary

This affirmation helps reframe how you perceive exercise. Find movement that feels joyful to your body.

4. I can do difficult things

This affirmation builds your self-efficacy, or your perception of how well you might carry out a certain task. High self-efficacy can promote behavior changes.

While this assertion stands on its own, you can also tweak it according to your individual goals. If you find it difficult to walk every day but aspire to, then you might instead rephrase your affirmation to state “I can walk every day.”

As you set these goals, keep in mind that they should be attainable and be built gradually. You can also get specific about how long you want to commit or how often you want to repeat your new health-related behavior.

Avoid overly ambitious changes that you are unlikely to accomplish. Remember, you’re aiming for slow, progressive, and sustainable goals that will become habitual.

Summary

This affirmation helps build your self-efficacy, thus promoting behavior change.

5. I savor every bite

Eating is a sensory experience that activates your senses beyond taste. While it may not always be possible to sit down and relish every morsel, encourage yourself to do so as often as possible.

Observe the way your food looks, smells, and tastes, and how many textures you can detect, any sounds it produces as you eat it, or how it’s arranged on your plate. This practice of savoring what you eat may help limit overconsumption.

While broader research is needed, studies have found that a high task load corresponded with a diminished intensity of flavor when eating. Participants who multitasked while eating also ate or drank more to compensate for this decreased intensity.

Eating mindfully is a practice, and it may take time to learn. This affirmation may help remind you to sit down and enjoy the act of nourishing yourself.

Summary

Eating mindfully can help you better enjoy the act of nourishing your body. This affirmation helps to remind you to slow down and be present.

6. I forgive my body

Our bodies can be a site of shame. Harmful messages promoting an ideal body type are sent out by diet culture and reinforced in media.

This may make you feel too large or small, or as if a particular body part doesn’t look the way you want it to.

If shame of this sort is a part of your body’s story, this proclamation may help you as you work to heal. Consider tailoring the affirmation to focus on a specific body part if that feels appropriate for you.

Keep in mind that positive affirmations may not be enough for your journey. Consider also speaking with a licensed counselor to work with you on any body image issues you may experience.

Summary

Diet culture and media can reinforce unattainable ideals about the perfect body and may even create shame. This affirmation helps to counter that.

7. I am kind to myself

Positive self-talk is worth exploring on your path to wellness. Self-talk is the inner monologue you carry, the way you speak to yourself inside your head.

But sometimes the way we speak to ourselves may be less generous than the way we would ever speak to another person.

While more research is needed, positive self-talk may be a boon to health.

If you are overtly and harshly self-critical, this affirmation can help foster compassion toward yourself.

Summary

This affirmation reminds you to practice compassion toward yourself, which may improve your well-being.

The takeaway

Positive affirmations can be a great start to improving your well-being and your relationship with your body.

The best affirmations are those that work for you and make sense to you. Therefore, make them specific to your goals and situation. They may work best when repeated daily for several minutes at a time.

Although positive affirmations are not magic bullets, they can at least provide a launching point for your path to wellness.