7 Affirmations to Increase Your MENTAL HEALTH!
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We need to focus on our mental health just as much as we focus on our physical health. They go hand in hand. Although, I think taking care of our physical health is so much more straight forward than taking care of our mental health. We know to take care of our physical health we need to move our bodies and nourish our bodies. But what about are mental health? What do we do?
I’m a firm believer that our words have power. The words we speak to ourselves whether consciously or subconsciouslycan either increase or decrease our mental health. That’s why along with praying and reading God’s word, I prioritize saying affirmations daily to keep my heart and mind in check.
In this episode, I share 7 affirmations with you and also talk about why these affirmations are important. So take out a pen and paper and write them down!
Episodes mentioned in this episode:
Episode 5: 10 Things I Do Every Day To Win The Day
Episode 101: 3 Things to Stop Doing to Live a Happier Life
Episode 101: Why It’s Okay to Want to Change Your Body
Episode 112: How to Shift Your Mindset From Punishing Your Body to Honoring Your Body
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Real. Let's get it, let's go!
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. I am so incredibly excited about this episode, Seven Affirmations to Increase Your Mental Health. I believe that we need to focus on our mental health just as much as we focus on our physical health, because they truly do go hand in hand. And although of course, taking care of our physical health is so much more straightforward than taking care of our mental health, we know to take care of our physical health, we know to move our bodies, to nourish our bodies, but how do we take care of our mental health? What do we do? Well, I am a firm believer that our words hold power. And I believe that the words that we speak to ourselves, whether consciously or subconsciously can either increase or decrease our mental health. And that's why along with praying and reading God's Word daily, I prioritize saying affirmations to keep my mind and heart in check.
So in this episode, I'm going to be sharing seven affirmations with you that you can take that I believe are so important. So I want to encourage you to take out a pen and paper, write them down. The next time you are feeling mentally off, whether that is in 10 minutes, in 10 hours, in 10 days, in 10 months, I would beg to differ that it would be 10 months because I know us, as humans, we go through ups and downs pretty much daily. I want you to take this out and I want you to pick an affirmation that is most fitting for what you're currently experiencing. And I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath. And I want you to say that affirmation to yourself out loud and then exhale. And then repeat that 10 times or more if you're feeling it.
When you do this, you will start to see a shift in your mind and in your heart. And you will see that you will transition into a much more balanced mental state, thinking with clarity. Before I share these seven affirmations with you, I want to share this super sweet review. It comes from, hey, [Alpal 00:02:31]. She says, "Just what a mind needs. Absolutely 100%, 10 out of 10 recommend this podcast. Julie is such a positive light and is so motivational. I listen to this podcast as I walk and I always feel refreshed and motivated afterwards. Thank you so much."
As you guys know, I talk about this every single episode, the reviews truly do mean the world to me, and they truly help the growth of the podcast. So if you haven't already rated and read the podcast, if you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts, there is a free podcast app on every single Apple device, whether it's a MacBook, an iPad, an iPhone, you tap that purple icon and then you type in, Embrace Your Real. First, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss an episode. And second, scroll all the way down and you will see the rate and review. It truly takes less than 15 seconds, but it helps us out so incredibly much. And I really do love connecting with you guys and knowing what you're getting out of each episode or knowing what you're getting out of just the podcast in general. So thank you in advance.
Okay. So let's dive into these seven affirmations. Affirmation number one, I love myself right now in this moment. I think it's so common for us to think that we will love ourselves when, when we get a boyfriend or when we get married or when we get promoted or when we lose weight. You fill in the blank. It always seems to be when and never now. But here's the thing. Most often, you won't love yourself when, if you don't love yourself right now. Loving yourself isn't a point in time or a destination to be reached. It's something that you need to do now. And it's a choice that you need to choose to make every single day. Loving yourself, no matter what doesn't mean, you become passive with your progress.
I think some people think that loving themselves right now means that they can't keep working for what they want. Please hear me when I say you can love yourself and still try to meet the right guy. You can love yourself and still strive for the promotion. You can love yourself and still work towards those health and fitness goals, losing weight, gaining muscle, whatever it is. You can love yourself and try to improve yourself at the same time. It doesn't need to be exclusively one or the other. You can do both simultaneously and I actually talk about this in episode 101, why it's okay to change your body. I will link it in the show notes for you to easily go listen after this episode.
But also, I want to point out that when you choose to love yourself and when you see the infinite value that your life holds, things often start to actually change for the good, because when you see the value inside of yourself, you won't settle for anything less in relationships. You will strive to achieve more in your professional life because you're putting yourself out there more. And you'll follow through with your health and fitness goals, because you love yourself so much that you can't, not take action. Remember this, when you change what is inside of you, things change around you.
Affirmation number two, how I feel matters. Your feelings are valid. Your feelings are important. And your feelings, no matter what they are, are worthy of being heard and worthy of being understood. Oftentimes we sympathize too much for others and don't give ourselves space to sympathize for ourselves. We think about how someone else has so much going on and what they're experiencing is so much more serious than us, but what about you? You have a lot going on too. We need to stop ranking our problems and comparing them to other people's problems. Of course, it's great that you care about other people's feelings, but you need to start caring about your own just as much.
So keep reminding yourself that you're allowed to feel what you feel and you're allowed to vocalize it because believe it or not, it does truly matter. Remember, at the end of the day, if you feel a certain way, you have to feel it. That is your reality. That matters. It really does matter a lot. And when you shove aside your feelings now, you're inviting for more problems to come up later. So it's important that you work on what you're feeling and dealing with your feelings as well.
Affirmation number three, I forgive myself. Why do we love to continue to beat ourselves up time and time again? If someone else makes a mistake, we're so quick to forgive. We are so quick to tell them it's not a big deal, yet when we make a mistake, we hold onto it so tightly and keep reminding ourselves of that mistake and keep punishing ourselves for it. We need to forgive ourselves like we would forgive our best friend. If your best friend came to you and said that she's so mad at herself for overindulging all weekend long, even though she has health and fitness goals that she's working towards, how would you respond to her? You would probably say things like, girl, you're only human. You can't be perfect all the time or, you'll be fine. Just focus on honoring your body this week. Or maybe you'll say, you deserve to enjoy the foods you love without feeling guilty about it.
Yet we ourselves do the same very thing that our friends did. We allow it to consume us. We would punish ourselves by obsessing about working out harder, longer, or eating less and less. We wouldn't let ourselves to forget what we did. And we would keep feeling dumb or stupid or guilty or shameful. We need to forgive ourselves like we forgive our best friend. We need to give ourselves the same grace and the same compassion.
Another thing that I remind myself is that if God who is perfectly holy, blameless and without sin is able to forgive us, I need to forgive myself. He does not call us to live in guilt and shame about our past. The whole point of Jesus dying on the cross, paid for our sins that we may receive forgiveness for and by his grace, we are able to have a relationship with him.
I was just reading this in my daily devotional a few days ago, Psalm 103: 10 through 12. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our inequities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." So please remember to forgive ourselves as the Lord forgave us.
Affirmation number four, I will find the good right now. Did you know that our brains are literally wired to see the worst in everything? It's true. It's our natural instinctual response to see the bad and it's our natural defense mechanism. That's why when we're going through hard times, we narrow in on the bad. There could be countless, amazing little things happening in our lives, but our brain just wants to fixate on the one big, bad thing. We fail to notice the amazing cup of coffee we had this morning, or the beautiful weather outside, or the compliments that our coworker or that stranger gave us at the grocery store, whatever small, nice thing it was, or the simple fact that we woke up to see another day, we were blessed with another opportunity at life, our brain, for whatever reason, blocks it out because it can't stop focusing on that one big, bad thing.
That's why we need to start actively looking for the good. When you find yourself in a moment where you're consumed by what's bad, stop, take a deep breath and list five things that are good in your life right this very moment. This can be small, simple things because you know what, life is about the small things. Those small things add up to the big, beautiful life that you have. So you need to start noticing them.
And one tip that helps me so much in starting out my day, every single morning is gratitude and prayer. I talk about this in my morning routine, like what I do every day to win my day in episode five of the podcast. So if you haven't tuned into that episode, or if you haven't listened to it in a while, I encourage you to go back and tune in episode five, 10 Things I Do Every Day to Win the Day. I will link that in the show notes so that you can easily go listen after this episode.
Affirmation number five, I will never give up on myself. Girl, no matter what you are facing, I need you to commit to never giving up on yourself. You are capable of doing hard things. You are capable of facing hard things. And you are capable of getting through hard things. In fact, if you're listening to this podcast right now, that means you have successfully been through 100% of your worst days. You can do it. When it feels like life is too hard and you can't do it, remind yourself that it won't be hard forever. What you're facing right now, won't always be your reality. If you keep pushing one week, one month or one year from now, you'll be through it. And you will be in a better place. Whatever you are facing, just remind yourself that you have the strength inside of you to get through it. You are capable of finding the solution. I need you to get some grit and keep pushing. You can, and will push through this and be stronger on the other side of it. Trust me on that.
Affirmation number six, I am grateful for what I can do. We love to focus on everything we are not, especially when it comes to our body. So many people ask me how I have learned to break my toxic relationship with food and fitness and instead shift my focus towards honoring my body. And my answer is always the same. I have so much gratitude for what my body does for me. Instead of hating it for not being skinnier or having cellulite or whatever it may be, I focus on everything that my body can and does for me every single day. My body allows me the chance to get out of bed every morning, to go hiking, to go paddleboarding with my boys, to do all the things that I love to do, and to do all the things that I need to do to survive, like breathing.
My body allows me the chance to live the life I want to live and enjoy it. So I decide to focus on that instead of focusing on needing to lose the weight or fitting into a smaller pants size. So this affirmation is for you if you struggle to have a healthier relationship with your body. I actually chat about this more in episode 12, How to Shift Your Mindset From Punishing Your Body to Honoring Your Body. So I will link that in the show notes that you can easily go listen to that episode as well.
Affirmation number seven, I deserve happiness. Sister, you deserve happiness. You deserve to have the relationship you want, the job you want, the life you want. You don't need to settle for anything that doesn't make you 100% happy. You don't need to always bend over backwards to make everyone else happy without ever focusing on if you're really happy. Sometimes you need to bend over backwards to make yourself happy. Let me ask you, when was the last time you actually bent over backwards to make yourself happy? You deserve to be happy, plain and simple, and you deserve to have the people in your life who support your happiness, who contribute to your happiness and who also prioritize your happiness.
If something takes away from your happiness, then it shouldn't be in your life. I need you to understand that and believe that. And a practical way to ensure that you are happy is to commit to doing one thing every single day that is fun and makes you happy. But you have to carve out the time, even if it's just for a few minutes. Prioritizing your own happiness will in turn give you so much more authentic and genuine happiness to spread to the world because you're truly feeling happy yourself first. In episode 101, I chat about three things that you need to stop doing to start living a healthier life. So I highly recommend that you tune into that. If you are finding yourself, not regularly happy in your life, I will link that in the show notes so that you can easily go lesson.
Okay. So here are the seven affirmations for your mental health. If you didn't write them down, because you were tuning in, you were driving, you were doing something, I want you to pause, get a piece of paper or get out your phone, put this on your notes app. And remember these seven things. Number one, I love myself right now in this moment. Number two, how I feel matters. Number three, I forgive myself. Number four, I will find the good right now. Number five, I will never give up on myself. Number six, I am grateful for what I can do. And number seven, I deserve happiness. Screenshot this right now. And I want you to post it up on your story. And I want to know which of these affirmations you needed today. So be sure to tag me, Julie Ledbetter. Be sure to tag Embrace Your Real account. We love connecting with you guys.
And again, remember the next time you are feeling mentally off, pick the affirmation that is most fitting for what you're experiencing. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and say the affirmation silently to yourself or out loud on your exhale. And then repeat that 10 times or more if you're feeling it. Trust me when I say that when you do this, you will feel yourself shift into a much more balanced mental state.
Also, if you want to learn more about what you can do for your mental health, be sure to tune in to episode 96, 10 Things That Can Damage Your Mental Health. I know that I referred a lot of different episodes in this episode. So I'm going to be sure to list them out right now, but also be sure to look at the show notes so that you can see all of the episodes that I recommended in this podcast. Episode five, 10 Things I Do Every Day to Win the Day. Episode 12, How to Shift Your Mindset From Punishing Your Body to Honoring Your Body. Episode 96, 10 Things That Can Damage Your Mental Health. Episode 101, Three Things to Stop Doing, to Live a Happier Life. And episode 110, Why it's Okay to Want to Change Your Body.
I hope that this episode gave you hope. I hope this episode gave you encouragement, it gave you something to hold on to for when you are really feeling in the pits mentally. I know, like I said, we are human. We go through so many emotions every single day, but having these simple tools, having these affirmations at our disposal can truly help, but you just have to prioritize, taking that minute and really stating these things out loud, reminding yourself of the bigger picture.
I want to encourage you to also bookmark this episode, save it, repeat it whenever you need to feel truth, being spoken over you. To end to this episode, if you have a sister or a friend or a coworker that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. As always, screenshotting it and posting it up on your story for your community to see helps out so much the growth of the podcast. And it can really help change the trajectory of someone's day or even life. So never underestimate who is watching you, who is watching the things that you're posting, because it truly can help. I appreciate you more than you know, I love you more than you know, and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts, to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and Embrace Your Real because you're worth it.