Whether you are sad, upset, pissed off, or feeling some other negative emotions, feeling better is important. It helps you get moving, be more productive, be more patient and kinder, and spend your time in a way that benefits you and others. Plus, we all just want to feel good! While you may be feeling down for a unique reason, there are some tried and true ways to feel better quickly, and many of them involve talking to yourself differently so you can shift your focus from the bad to the positive. Use these ‘I am affirmations’ to help you implement what you need to do to feel better as quickly as possible.
1. I Am Grateful
Don’t write this simple ‘I am affirmation’ off!
You have probably heard about gratitude over and over again, and that’s because it’s a powerful state of being that can influence how you feel quickly. It’s important to express gratitude as much as possible.
Research on gratitude has shown over and over again that gratitude can change your brain and influence your entire life in a positive way.
And being grateful doesn’t just help people who generally have a good state of mind. According to one study, it can help people who are dealing with mental health issues and seeking help.
Saying ‘I am grateful’ and then focusing on why you are grateful will help you make the shift from a negative emotion to a better feeling one very quickly.
2. I Am Going To Take This Time To Do A Chore
This doesn’t sound like a fun ‘I am affirmation’ to say, but it will help you feel better quickly.
If you tell yourself you are going to get up and do a chore, then your mind will start to look for something that needs to be done. Repeat this ‘I am affirmation’ over and over again so that you get up and don’t make any excuses to sit back down.
This works in two ways.
- Doing something helps you take your mind off your negative state.
- The satisfaction of crossing something off your to-do list can give you let go of stress and worry and feel, instead, a feeling of accomplishment.
3. I Am Stronger Than I Think
When we are feeling down, it’s likely that we are beating ourselves up in some way. Maybe we don’t feel strong enough to do what we need to do or maybe we give ourselves a title such as a loser or a failure.
Saying something like ‘I am a loser’ doesn’t help us feel better.
But, saying something like ‘I am stronger than I think’ can help us remember that despite what’s going on, we have the ability to overcome it and move forward.
The fact is that you are stronger than you think. There are things you’ve gone through in life that required a lot of courage, ability, and strength.
The problem is that we just don’t realize how strong we are until we go through those situations, and then the feeling of internal strength can fade away after a while and we lose touch with just how powerful we really are.
Think of all the tough and painful things you’ve gone through before and remember how you have come out of them each time.
4. I Am Taking Life A Day At A Time
A lot of times when we feel down, it’s because we are focused on what will happen or what has happened. Living day to day can help us see what matters most, which is doing our best today.
It’s important to have goals in life, but today is the only day that really matters. What you do today will affect your tomorrow, which, by the way, will be your today when you get there.
If you are feeling down, use this ‘I am affirmation’ and then let go of yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s worries.
When you focus on today – whether it’s what you need to do or how you can make it the best today possible – you will start feeling better. You will feel less overwhelmed and more in control.
5. I Am Someone Who Focuses On Solutions
A person who focuses on solutions doesn’t get stuck in worry or dread or wonder. They may worry a bit, which is simply a signal that something is off or needs to be fixed, and then they put their attention on a solution to eliminate the negative emotion.
The trick to stop feeling bad is to solve the issue that is making you feel bad.
For example, if you are feeling bad because of a health issue, then focusing on what you can do to improve that health issue will help you feel better. Writing down the steps you can take to improve your health and then taking action on those steps will help you feel more in control and powerful.
You won’t have control over everything all of the time, but when you are someone who focuses on solutions rather than problems, you are going to stop feeling bad and start feeling as if you are doing the best you can to fix things and guide things in a positive way.
6. I Am Enough
This is one of those ‘I am affirmations’ that gets talked about a lot because it works. Marisa Peer says to use affirmation all the time and to write it down everywhere so that we can see it all day, every day.
This affirmation can help you change the pictures in your head, make the familiar unfamiliar and the unfamiliar familiar, and help your mind to do things from the premise that you are enough.
It’s one of those powerful little ‘I am affirmations’ that everyone should be using to feel better in their life.
7. I Am Flawed Just Like Everyone Else On This Planet
Flawed means imperfect. This doesn’t seem like it would be one of the ‘I am affirmations’ that would help you feel better, but it actually is. It is especially good to say when you are beating yourself up over something you did or said.
The fact is that nobody is perfect. We all have flaws. And admitting that we are not perfect can be the first step to moving up the emotional scale and to better feelings.
By admitting that you are flawed, you will stop resisting what is and start looking for ways to feel better.
For instance, if you are feeling bad because you made a mistake, you can spend a ton of time beating yourself up over it, or you can affirm to yourself that you are flawed and made a mistake because you are not perfect. Then you can get busy focusing on a solution to help you fix that mistake or increase your chances of never making it again.
This ‘I am affirmation’ used with other affirmations can help you get unstuck from feeling bad very quickly. For instance, saying ‘I am flawed, and I am enough’ can help you recognize that even though you are not perfect, you are still enough as you are.
8. I Am Kind To Myself
We tend to be kinder to other people than we are ourselves, and since we are stuck with ourselves every moment of the day, this unkindness can cause us to feel really bad.
This is one of those ‘I am affirmations’ that you need to say until you believe because it’s really going to change your life. If you can affirm to yourself that you are kind to yourself, you are going to start treating yourself with the same love and compassion that you would treat a friend, family member, or even a stranger – all of who often get more kindness from us than we give ourselves.
As you affirm that you are kind to yourself, ask yourself what you can do for you to make yourself feel better (just as you would for someone else), and then do it!
9. I Am Calm
One of the tricks to calm anxiety and stress is to find a calm thought or memory and put yourself in it. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between a thought and reality, so if you move into that calm thought, then your mind will relax, and your body will follow suit.
Doing this can help you shift from stress, anxiety, and worry, and move into a state of feeling better.
Paul McKenna, who has a free masterclass on Mindvalley for getting over stress and gaining peace, teaches a trick where you put your thumb and second finger together as you remember a calm moment in your life. Doing this over and over again will help attach the physical motion of putting your fingers together with the calming memory. Then, when you want to feel calm, you can put your thumb and second finger together and trigger an instant sense of calm.
10. I Am In Charge Of My Emotions
This is something I learned from Neale Donald Walsch’s course on Mindvalley. You can take charge of your emotions and dictate how you will feel.
The best way to make this ‘I am affirmation’ stick is to challenge yourself to dictate how you will feel for 7 days. It’s an interesting challenge that will help you see that you have more control over how you feel than you currently know.
