Disclosure: This post is for informational and supportive purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. If you’re struggling to cope with trauma, please seek help from a licensed therapist or medical professional.
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Why do you need affirmations while healing?
Trauma manifests in the body in a lot of different ways and there’s a lot of avenues to take to recover from it. Depending of what you’ve been through there might be physical forms of healing you need to do like:
- Trauma informed yoga
- Somatic Therapy
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
- Breathwork
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
However, trauma can also manifest in a lot of negative thought patterns. It can cause anxiety, depression and fear. To heal it’s important to not only work through what you’ve gone through (like with therapy and journaling) but it’s also really important to rewire your brain. Rewiring your brain and your thoughts can help fight off those negative thought patterns and thus helping with any mental health problems they could lead to on top of the trauma.
Is it actually possible to rewire your brain just with affirmations?
Every day you think about 70,000 thoughts. If they’re mostly negative you could be contributing to the mental health issues we just covered, amongst others. And if you’ve gone through any sort of trauma it can be really difficult to let good thoughts and possibilities in because your brain might be trying to tell you that you’re setting yourself up for pain. But what you’re really doing is setting yourself up for hope and joy. And those two things will help make you stronger, they’ll build resilience.
You’re already so strong for getting through whatever you went through.
Let me say that again: you are so strong.
What affirmations can do is help your brain know that. Right now it might be trying to protect you. But if you’re letting yourself fall victim to a negative thought pattern, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
I know all of this because in the midst of my trauma and even right now during the recovery, my brain will try to push me right back to where I was when I was at my worst. For a long time I couldn’t do anything about it, I just leaned in and let the negative thoughts add fuel to the fire of my pain.
But one day I just had had enough. I don’t even remember what prompted this change, but I just remember having a moment of clarity. I realized: I’m through it, why am I adding more pain to my life? Why am I thinking more pain into existence?
I started with journaling and therapy and both of those things helped immensely but it wasn’t until I found Louise Hay that I was really able to rewire my thought process. I read ‘You can heal your heart’ and ‘Heal your Mind’ and they helped give me some clarity on why I’m thinking the way I am and they gave me hope.
How to use affirmations:
There’s lots of ways to put affirmations to use. In the books they talk about several people writing their affirmations down and posting them all over their house so they can see them and read them throughout their day. I personally combine my journaling with affirmations. I think about what I need to tell myself that day and reflect on it. And then I write my affirmations down on paper as many times as I feel like I need to engrain it in my mind. Then throughout the day if I have time that I might use mindlessly scrolling my phone, I instead call back on that affirmation and I let myself really truly feel it.
Affirmations for trauma healing
When using them to heal trauma, it’s good to have some memorized and on hand for when some of that trauma is triggered. Such as:
- I am safe in this moment.
- My mind, body and soul are safe.
- I supply my peace, no one can take it from me.
- I find tranquility when life is chaos.
- My body deserves peace and safety.
- I give myself permission to heal at my own pace.
- I love myself no matter what.
- Each day, I reclaim a little more of myself.
Everyone’s experience is unique, if these don’t work for your circumstances then feel free to tweak them! The point of them is to heal whatever is going on in YOUR own mind.
Why journal while healing from trauma?
Like I said, there’s lots of different therapies to heal from whatever ails you. But if your trauma is complicated and causing a lot of thoughts and feelings you are having a hard time working through or processing, journaling can be a great tool.
For one, it’s a safe place. It’s just you, a writing utensil, and a piece of paper. There’s no one there to judge (besides you, so please give yourself grace). And you can mentally explore whatever you need it. Even if it makes sense to no one else, it makes sense to you.
It doesn’t have to be a fancy notebook, but if that’s what brings you joy then go for the fancy notebook! It could literally just be a piece of paper or a spiral notebook, anything works as long as you’re writing it down and processing.
I’m a bit of a notebook weirdo and honestly have 3 notebooks on hand at the moment. All of them serve a different purpose but it’s this one I mostly use to for my journal prompts and affirmations. I actually designed it myself and put it on amazon myself because I needed a project to do and I find plants extremely calming. So I just made my own calming plant notebook!
Anyways, I think it’s important to do what’s going to be the best regimen for yourself individually. Some people are planners and may want to plan out their journal prompts ahead of time and fill them in according to their plan. I personally like to take a minute to reflect on where I’m at mentally and check in with myself before figuring out what kind of journalling and affirmations will best serve me at that moment.
What’s important is that it will benefit YOU.
So before you start your journal and affirmation journey maybe do this exercise:
- Take some deep breaths and find your calm
- Really think about how you best function: are you a planner or do you like to roll with intuition?
- Think about your usual daily routine, when can you fit in your affirmation/journalling regimen? Morning, mid day, night?
- How are you usually feeling during that time of day? What do you think will benefit you most? Having it already laid out for you so half the work is already done? Or figuring it out as you go?
Once you have a good idea of what will work best for you, it’s time to move forward!
Journal Prompts for Healing:
- What emotions am I experiencing right now? What are these emotions trying to tell me?
- What does my safe place look and feel like right now? How can I use this when I’m feeling unsafe?
- What is one burden I’m ready to begin letting go of—even just a little?
- What boundaries do I need to feel emotionally and physically safe now?
- How can I be more gentle with myself today?
- What kind of life am I creating as I move forward with intention?
Trauma and healing journeys are non-linear.
Give yourself grace during this time. If you can’t handle working through certain emotions or memories, it might not be the time to work through them. But one day you will and you’ll be stronger for it. Take things one step at a time and don’t forget how resilient you are. If you put in the work you will come out of this better than you were before.
Keep an eye out! I’m currently working on another canva project: a printable day planner for reflecting and mindset. It will also include journal prompts/pages and affirmations throughout. Make sure to join our email list to be the first to know when it comes out!
