My first experience using affirmations was around 3 months after I had graduated. I was going to lots of interviews, trying to find my first proper full-time job. Attending interviews can be very overwhelming and rejection from a role I really wanted would leave me doubting my abilities and feeling down for a couple of days. Post university life was also making me feel very unsettled as I had just moved home from Leeds, a city I loved living in and was really sad to say goodbye to. I found affirmations a useful way of questioning unhelpful, negative thoughts and motivating myself to keep going until I found the right job. Questioning negative thoughtsI first came across the idea of using affirmations when I read 'You Are a Badass' by Jen Sincero. In chapter 17, Sincero writes about how you must question the story that your brain is trying to tell you about who you are and why your life is the way it is by writing down your negative thoughts and then counteracting them by writing down a more positive belief to create a new story. For example, when I wrote out my negative thoughts during this time (I still have that piece of paper folded in my diary) they included:
I then wrote a statement to counteract these false thoughts:
Write them down and keep them with youThe best way I use affirmations is by writing them down on a piece of paper and carrying them with me in my diary, or sticking them on the back of my bedroom door. When I am having a bad day or can feel a sense of negative judgement from my thoughts, I refer back to the list and remind myself that I am in control of my thoughts and that the negative ones are just trying to throw me off. Reading these before an interview or meeting helps me to feel more confident and not freak out in situations that make me feel nervous.
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AuthorThe Blue Graduate is a career and wellbeing advice and guidance blog for students and graduates experiencing post-uni 'blues'. Archives
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