A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditating with Affirmations

Meditation is a practice that helps a person to find peace and calm in hectic everyday life. Affirmations are positive statements used to help combat negative feelings and thoughts. In today’s world, we all need to practice both, and when combined, they are extremely helpful. 

Meditating with affirmations not only helps you achieve a positive frame of mind, but it also allows you the chance to find your center with a platform to push back negativity, stress, and feelings of being overwhelmed. 

If you have anxiety, tension, or stress, meditation with affirmations is an excellent practice to follow. The information in this blog post is a step-by-step guide to meditating with affirmations, as well as, helpful hints for choosing your own personal affirmations and the best way to go about bringing peace and calm into your busy world. 

Meditation with Affirmations

When starting out, it is essential to understand the why of this practice. In the world today, there is more stress and anxiety than ever. There is a battery of negative events to make you anxious: the unknowns of employment, your health or the health of those around you, and worrying about the safety of family and friends. Where does one turn to find peace, to drive out anxiety and negativity? 

It does not need to be expensive or even time-consuming to find a way to calm one’s mind, reduce stress, and become less anxious. Meditation with affirmations is something one can do without extra equipment or even special memberships. 

Remember this process is for you, for your health, your relationships, for pushing away the negative and bringing in the positive; this covers mental, physical, and emotional health. Meditation with affirmations can give you a whole new outlook on life. 

Step By Step Meditating with Affirmations

What are the main steps or focus points when it comes to meditation with affirmations?

Preparing to meditate and then completing meditation with affirmations is something that should be carefully thought out and then implemented.

The steps are as follows:

  • Find your place or setting
  • Decide on your why
  • Choose the theme of your affirmations
  • Create your affirmations
  • Set aside the time 
  • Breathing
  • Focus
  • Combine your affirmations and meditation
  • Make it part of everyday life

Though, it’s true that once you reach a certain level of experience in meditation you will be able to practice it practically anywhere and anytime, but until you get to that point, you might want to try and rid yourself of all unnecessary distractions that might disrupt your practice.

Remember, that the real goal is to make meditation part of your life. Consistency is what will bring real results.

Find Your Place or Setting

Even if you’ve never considered your meditation space important, creating somewhere peaceful, safe, and comfortable is vital to your practice.

Try to find a quiet place. The temperature should be comfortable for you. Not too hot or too cold. The setting should also be a place where you feel happy and safe. There should be no distractions in this place of meditation. It should also be a place where there is something soft to sit or lay down on. 

Something else to think about is that you do not always need to be stationary in your setting. Perhaps walking in nature is a good setting for you to find peace and quiet. Sitting in a boat in a quiet cove will work as well. This is your setting, and you know what is best when it comes to a place to meditate. 

If music is not distracting to you, it is a good choice to play soft relaxing music. There should not be words with this music, just something very slow and calming. There are literally thousands of different recordings of relaxation music available on the Internet. Here is a great resource.

Finding Your Why

As mentioned earlier, it is important to decide why you want to meditate before you can move into the act of meditating. Do you need to meditate because of worry that is causing you to lose sleep? Is meditation needed to calm you at the beginning or end of a busy day? Are you fearful of something happening in your daily life? Included is a more in-depth article about finding your Why.

Everyone has their own “why,” and once you are able to name that, moving to the next step of choosing your affirmations will be much easier. 

Choose the Theme of Your Affirmations

Once you have been able to focus on your why the next step is to choose your affirmations. The why is closely connected to the affirmation. There are questions to be asked and answered, and guidelines to be followed when creating your affirmations. 

It may be important to clarify just what is an affirmation. Affirmations must be said in a positive manner. An affirmation is anything, a short phrase or a couple of words that a person repeats to oneself; this could be either out loud or quietly in one’s thoughts. Affirmations are, again, always positive and always in the present or future tense.

Positive affirmations can be motivators, something that will encourage you to be better. They are a tool for a positive frame of mind. 

The affirmation that you choose must deeply relate to you. If the affirmation has no connection to your life or how you feel, then it will not provide you with peace or with a more positive outlook. You need to be the one to pick your affirmation. 

Affirmations must also be true and realistic. It would not be appropriate to say: “I am the ruler of the universe!” Although this is a very positive statement, it just isn’t true! Affirmations need to reflect your strengths and who you are!

Creating Affirmations

A good way to start an affirmation is with words like: “I am…” or “I feel…”. Keep those negative words out of your affirmations. Don’t use “don’t’! Affirmations that work best are:

  • Personal
  • Positive
  • Specific
  • Present Tense
  • Future Tense

If there is a major deadline for a project at work, and you are going to meet the deadline, but are just feeling somewhat anxious, an appropriate affirmation might be: “I am organized and prepared” or “I am ready to complete this job” Or “I feel great support from my team.”

These days, “I am safe” or “I will not live in fear” are common affirmations. These are considered very personal, positive, and specific. 

Using future tense in affirmations is also very helpful when there’s a need to work on looking ahead and releasing fears, hurts, or frustrations. An example of this would be: “I will let go of my anger” or “I am releasing my frustration…”

Here are some simple steps to follow: find one thing in your life that is a negative or a stress; write down the opposite of that negative turning it into a positive. Keep the affirmation short so that you can remember it; start out with “I” or “My,” but do not use words like “I need,” or I can’t.” 

Put some emotion into your affirmations you need to feel these statements, not just repeat them over and over again without really making a connection to them.

Make sure that your affirmations will work. There must be a belief in your statement. If you do not think that you can actually accomplish what you are stating in your affirmation, then you will be going nowhere. It will become a frustration, and then the negative thoughts will return. 

Before moving forward in this process, take some time to create your own personal affirmations that fit you, and that will allow you to release the negative and find the positive in your life. 

There are many great lists of affirmations available like this one Here. Just remember to make the affirmations meaningful and connected to you!

Setting Aside Time

You have found your setting, your why, and created your affirmations, what is the next step? Finding the time! If you do not take the time to put any of the above steps into practice, you are defeating the purpose of meditating with affirmations.

It is very important to be strategic when setting a time to meditate. Is it needed first thing in the morning, maybe even before you ever get out of bed? Or is it necessary in the middle of a workday? Do you need to do this more than once during the day?

When first starting out, it may be necessary to give yourself a reminder. This could be an alarm on your phone or a note on the door to the garage. The most important point to remember is to make it a routine, and do whatever is necessary to make it a habit. 

How long should one meditate? If the time has been set aside only once during the day, then anywhere from ten to twenty minutes is appropriate. There are some meditations that can last up to thirty minutes. If meditation takes place twice daily, then the time can be from five to ten minutes long. 

It is important to note that when first starting out, it may be necessary to allow for a longer period of time in order to get comfortable and find focus.

Breathing to Improve Meditation

The breath that travels in and out of our body is very important. There may be times in the day that you are breathing hard like after a workout, climbing stairs, or even sometimes carrying a heavy load. During other times of the day, our breathing is slow and steady.

What type of breathing is best for meditation? You should try to breathe naturally. It is not necessary to take deep breaths the entire time, nor is it required to take only shallow breaths. It is what is comfortable for you.

Once you have settled into your meditation space, if you are sitting, your posture does not have to be stiff and tense, just slightly relaxed. If you are lying down, it is best to place your hands either at your sides or lying gently on your stomach. Your legs should be flat on the floor.

Start by breathing in through your nose and then out through your mouth. There is no need to hold your breath, just slowly breathe in and then exhale. It may be a good idea to practice this before you actually start your meditation time. 

Focus and Calm Your Mind

You are seated or lying down in a quiet, slightly darkened room. There is a soft pillow or blanket between you and the floor. There is calm and soothing music playing in the background. 

Your eyes may be closed or open. Recommendations about eyes being opened or closed are varied, but it is suggested that when first starting out, it may be best to close your eyes. Focus may be brought about more quickly with this method. However, when eyes are closed, there may be a tendency to drift off or take a bit of a nap. There is nothing wrong with this, but the act of focus is not taking place if you are asleep.

The longer one has been meditating, it may be easier to use the process of “your eyes being half-open.” This is where with lids partially closed, you will follow the line of your nose in order to find one spot to look at near your toes. This could be used as your focus. 

Meditation does not mean that you have totally shut off your mind. Actually, it is impossible to STOP thinking. You may be working to slow your mind down during this time of calm, but you can never actually turn it off, nor should that be a goal. The goal, instead, is to recognize your thoughts and let them pass without any judgement or identification with them. 

The reason why breathing was discussed first is that your breathing is the best thing for you to focus in on. Suppose you are tempted to start thinking about something else that happened during the day. Stop and bring your focus back to the act of breathing.

Putting Meditation and Affirmation Together

Now is the time to put everything together. Start by deciding when during the meditation time, the affirmations will be used. They may come at the beginning to help bring about calm and focus.

Your time may begin with breathing and gaining focus. These steps are very important when it comes to slowing down all parts of your body. Once this has been accomplished, then the affirmations are used during the rest of the time of meditation. 

Affirmations may also be used at the end of the meditation time. Once a time of quiet meditation with breathing and focus has been accomplished, at the close of the time, affirmations may be repeated numerous times. 

Combining positive affirmations with meditation may create even more benefits. Meditation can help to erase or expel the negativity you are feeling, yet when you include personal and positive affirmations, it will have an even greater effect of expelling the negativity and the stress out of your mind and your body. 

Christopher Lloyd Clarke states, “Meditation with your affirmations is like taking a bath in positivity.”

Making it a Part of Daily Life 

It takes time to make something a habit. It could take anywhere from two to six months before something becomes second nature and, therefore, an automatic part of daily life and routine. 

Remembering your why, setting aside the time, creating personal and positive affirmations, and finding your space are all actions that will go a long way toward making mediation with affirmations a part of your days.

It is also very important to be “preemptive” when it comes to your meditation routine. When it comes to calming yourself after a hectic and stressful day, it is obvious that meditation with affirmations will work. However, this can also be used to get ahead of the stress or even keep the stress at bay. 

If you know there is going to be a lot of stress in the week to come, or there is a deadline coming at the end of the month, there is nothing wrong with starting your meditation with the affirmations that are connected to the upcoming events several weeks in advance.

Using Affirmations in Many Ways

Affirmations are something that does not need to be reserved for only meditation. It is a good idea to post your affirmations somewhere that you will see them daily or even multiple times throughout the day.

Place them on the bathroom mirror, in your car, on your computer, or as a screen saver, even in your daily planner! Affirmations can give you a little boost at a time when you need them most. 

It is okay to repeat your affirmations when you are commuting to work, in your office or classroom, or anywhere else that a quick calming exercise is needed. 

It may be obvious after even a couple of days that this new routine is making a difference. If it takes a little longer than that, don’t give up, there will be a clearing out of the negative thoughts and a new sense of positive feelings. 

Included are several guided meditations with affirmations. These are videos lasting anywhere from five to thirty minutes:

How Your Brain Works: RAS 

Using affirmations with meditation is good for your subconscious as well as the part of your brain, which is referred to as RAS. This stands for Reticular Activating System. 

When words or phrases are repeated over and over during one time of meditation and then also repeated over numerous days and weeks, your RAS makes those positive words and phrases a part of the way that you see yourself. 

Affirmations are positive; therefore, repeating positive words and phrases numerous times over a length of time will allow your RAS to create a positive self-concept and high self-esteem. 

The Subconscious Mind and Meditation

Your subconscious mind is what runs your attitudes, natural tendencies, or habits and how you behave or react to different people or situations. Your subconscious mind controls over 90% of your daily function. Everything that we do automatically each day is stored in the subconscious. 

When using meditation with affirmations, you are training your subconscious mind to learn to believe in yourself. You are changing your attitude about different situations or even different people. This creates new habits to be stored in your subconscious and become new second nature.

There is an excellent article here that really digs into the different ways that meditation can affect the brain.

Benefits that Come From Meditation with Affirmations

There are many great benefits when it comes to meditation. Most people meditate to help reduce stress. Numerous studies have shown a reduction in stress when a consistent practice of meditation is used. Stress creates cortisol in your body, and this can lead to headaches, disrupted sleep, a spike in blood pressure, and even depression.

Do you want to keep your mind young? Meditation can help with that! Studies have shown that people who meditate are able to think with greater clarity. If it pushes all the jumble of thoughts aside or even gets those thoughts in the order, you are able to see things more clearly, remember things that you have heard or read, and keep the fog of too many thoughts swirling in your head away.

Meditation with affirmations can lead to a more positive outlook on life and confidence in oneself. It is almost like giving yourself a pep talk and, as stated before, it provides the opportunity to push away the negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. 

Mental Health Benefits

A great benefit that takes place with the reduction of stress, and that is a lessening of anxiety. These two negatives are closely connected. For example, with a large presentation at work, it’s normal to feel stressed and anxious. It is very easy to follow the slippery slide of stress, creating fears of not being good enough, or lacking the ability to do the assigned task. 

Meditation can help improve your sleep. Falling asleep while focusing and saying your own personal affirmations is an excellent way to bring in those positive and comforting thoughts. It also helps slow down your body and your mind. There is a good possibility that you will fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.

It improves your attention span! Most people in our world today have a very short attention span. Meditation can help improve in this area, as well as your attention to detail. This all combines to make you more effective at work and your every day life.

The benefits are numerous when it comes to helping individuals be their best selves. Creating a greater self-awareness, getting to know yourself better, finding out what things in your life give you stress, and how to use the best construction when it comes to words and actions.

 Physical Benefits

Physical health can also be improved with the use of meditation with affirmations. If you are stressed or anxious, this puts a strain on the heart. Straining the heart can easily drive up your blood pressure. If those stresses and fears can be put aside, it is definitely a positive for one’s physical health. 

Pain control, in a lot of ways, goes hand in hand with an improvement in physical health. Your state of mind is connected to how you see or experience pain. Meditation may, at times, be used during physical therapy, or it is also used for people that experience chronic pain. This one cuts too close to the bone.

I’ve struggled with chronic pain my whole adult life. And mindfulness meditation is what did it for me. It took a couple of years of practice, but the results are simply astonishing. On the scale of 1 to 10 —almost zero pain! It used to be a constant 7. If that is not a miracle, I don’t know what is.

The benefits of meditation with affirmations are numerous, and there is clear scientific proof of the numerous physical, psychological, and emotional advantages.

Meditation vs. Visualization

There are times that these two words are used interchangeably. There may be some that believe visualization is the same as meditation. This is actually not true; there are some rather large differences when referring to visualization and meditation.

Both are excellent practices. It is easy to tailor both to fit you! However, where meditation is quiet and restful, visualization is more active. Many athletes use visualization to “pump themselves up” before a major competition. Visualization will bring your mental and emotional state to high alert, and physically it will prepare your body for an extreme level of competition. 

Even though these two practices are very different, they can be used together; it starts by allowing your body to become quiet, and to find a soothing focus dispelling negative thoughts with positive affirmations. 

When those have been pushed away, then it is time to bring on the visualization of what could possibly be the best outcome and get your body ready to perform at the highest level possible. This does not need to be just in relation to sports; it can also fit into many other scenarios. 

Meditation with Affirmations

It is very obvious that there are numerous positive benefits to meditation with affirmations. It is important to make a commitment to consistently practice and then be patient when waiting for results.

Affirmations need to be your own. They need to be positive, written, and said in the present tense; they should be realistic and simple. Don’t forget to keep them with you or put them somewhere that you see them often.

Meditation with affirmations can be life-changing, and in our crazy, stressed out and rather uncertain world today, it is definitely something that you want to make a priority in your life.