Words have power and so do your thoughts. Unfortunately, moms are often in a vicious cycle of negative thinking. Affirmations can change your life…

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This episode discusses:

What affirmations are.
Why affirmations can transform your motherhood.
Why many of today’s popular affirmations are unhealthy.
Some examples of affirmations that I speak during my morning routine.
How negative thinking impacts our actions.
How to write your own affirmations.
How to set up your life with affirmations and incorporate them into your day.

Don’t have time to listen? Here’s the episode all typed out:

Simply Freeing? Motherhood doesn’t feel simply freeing when you’re on autopilot in a home filled with chaos, stress and a ton of pressure. In order to survive the chaos we NEED the right strategies and mindset to embrace the simple and enjoy the few short years we have with our kids. I believe that we are called to see that we CAN rise up, get out of our head, shut out the expectations of the world and what mom life is supposed to be like and change what’s not working so that motherhood is fulfilling. Join me as we discuss all things motherhood, homeschooling, minimalism, faith and health. My mission is to help you embrace simplicity and find freedom in your motherhood. I’m Jackie from Whole9Family and this is the “Simply Freeing” Podcast.

Hello everybody! Today we are going to talk about the power and importance of affirmations and how they can really transform your motherhood, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. We all know how busy mom life is and how mentally and physically exhausting it can be and yet we have no choice as moms but to show up every single day regardless of how we’re feeling.

Affirmations can really, really help when we are feeling extremely overwhelmed and we just don’t know what to do. They can help when we don’t know where to go next or what to think. They can help when we just feel like crying and when everything just seems like it’s spiraling out of control and is just too much.

I know that on good days, it’s super easy for me to just rock my mom life. I can easily make dinner. I am inspired to be creative with the kids, especially If I’ve had a good cleaning session or if I’ve organized some of the toys. I have good days when my environment is all set up well but you know as well as I do that those feelings don’t last long. The reality is, the house is not always super organized and not always clean and all of that impacts me a lot which is why I am really ruthlessly decluttering and working towards creating an environment that is super simplistic and minimal. I’m still a work in progress but it’s definitely a million times better than it was before.

On days when things aren’t so good, it is so hard to continue being a mom that your kids look up to. It’s hard to show up when you don’t want to and unfortunately a lot of us end up showing up as a burnt out mom desperate for a babysitter rather than the mom that we are called to be and this is the worst. This is exactly when things around you start to crumble really fast and here is where affirmations can come in. They can be such a powerful way to turn your mindset around and get you going again.

I wanted to bring up the topic of affirmations because they’ve become pretty popular in the mom space. I mentioned affirmations in episode 10 when I shared my entire morning routine with you. Affirmations are a part of that morning routine.

If you’re not aware of what affirmations are, they are statements that are typically read out loud that affirm your beliefs. The Bible talks about affirmations. We are told to set our minds on things above, not on things that are on the earth. We are told that whatever we are doing we should be giving thanks to God. We are told to take every thought captive. Many of us have thoughts that are seriously wrong and we’re putting ourselves down day in and day out. We’re not valuing ourselves and this is extremely unhealthy. Our actions tend to follow the way that we think. Our words are so, so powerful. As busy moms who are feeling exhausted in every way, especially if you’re homeschooling or have young needy kids and you don’t get very many breaks, affirmations can be what helps focus your mind on the right things. They can refocus you when you’re feeling “off.” Renewing your mind each and every day is really really important.

If you were to do a search on affirmations, you’ll find that a lot of them are extremely self-centered. They are very “speak your truth” kind of motivational statements. It’s good to be motivated but I think we can easily lose sight of the fact that if we’re motivated to act better without really recognizing where our power to do better comes from, we are going to be sorely disappointed.

When I was first learning about affirmations so many of them did not sit well with me. Just do an affirmation search on Instagram and you’ll go down the rabbit hole and find a self-help paradise. A ton of affirmations floating around the internet are essentially making you out to be a God. They make assumptions that you can control the outcome of your life. Spoiler alert… No matter what anyone tells you, you can’t actually control what happens in your life but there is something to be said about the outcomes that happen as a result of working hard. The chances are pretty high that if you work really hard at something and continue refining what’s not working, you’ll most likely achieve a positive outcome. It’s important to not that there is not an affirmation in the world that will come true if you continue to be lazy because you’re having “off” days. I hate to use the word lazy because I know that when we’re in that burnt out, overwhelmed state of mind which I’ve been in so so many times, you may act lazy but a lot of times it’s because you’ve reached a point where you “just can’t. You no longer have the drive to continue showing up in the best way that you can.
Speaking truth in the form of affirmations, can help motivate you to work hard and make those positive, (and sometimes drastic) needed changes in your home and family so that your mom life can literally be transformed.

Creating affirmations with the wrong intent…without praying and inviting God in, is going to set you up for failure big time. If you create affirmations and rely on God’s supernatural power and not on your own strength, this can really enable you to be a better mom and to get up and keep going, even if you’ve cried all morning because you felt and acted like one big mess. This is when your life can really change.

The way we think impacts how we act. Without realizing it, our negative mindset creeps in and slowly takes over us. What happens in our minds impact the actions we take and negative thinking makes us take action and try to fix problems in ways that are not healthy whatsoever. I’m going to give you a few examples of how this can happen.

Do any of these scenarios resonate with you?

Have you ever gotten so frustrated with your kids because you asked for help to maintain the house so many times and they haven’t helped. You end up feeling so over it that you end up doing it all yourself.

Have you ever gotten so mad at your spouse for not doing XYZ and instead of speaking up and communicating with him about something that bothers you stew and stew over it until you end up blowing up.

How about when you literally give up on homeschooling for the day because it’s not worth fighting over the same issues over and over again?

What about the times when you let the kids win because you just don’t care anymore. Don’t do your chores. I’m sick of hearing you complain about them.

Giving into the whining and turning on the TV just to get a break.

These examples, (and I’m saying them because I’ve done every single one of them) are Band-Aid fixes where you’re coming up with a short term answer to your problem instead of dealing with it because it’s easier to do so in the moment.

Affirmations are like a slap in the face that can get you to begin changing internally and thinking in more positive ways and believing things that are true instead of continuing to give in and perform those unhealthy, toxic behaviors. Affirmations can be written with very specific things in mind that you’re struggling with and that’s what’s great about them.

I want to talk about how we can write our own affirmations that encourageme and lift us up without giving us a false assurance. We have to find that balance. Some of the affirmations that I’ve seen, don’t sit well with me. Things like I deserve to receive XYZ…you don’t really deserve anything. Those types of affirmations are not ones that I’m drawn to personally because I know that anything that I have been blessed with in my life is solely because of the grace of God. I write all of my affirmations with this in mind. Some of my affirmations I borrowed from others that I respect, some come straight from the Bible and others I’ve created myself. They are all really specific to what I’m struggling with him my life.

I’m going to share some of my own personal and parenting affirmations with you today in hopes that maybe it will help you to start creating your own.

Here are some of my personal affirmations:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:6

For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control 2 Timothy 17.

My joys is in God first above all.

What I do today will affect every day from now on.

I am exactly where I need to be.

Here are some of my parenting affirmations:

I will act on disrespect immediately.

I am a patient mom.

I speak calmly and gently when I feel angry.

Bedtime is for their good and mind… No excuses. (We are forever working on this one!)

I speak these affirmations out loud. I pray through them. We are told in the Bible to set our minds on things above not on things that are on the earth. My faith is the foundation for everything that I do so if I’m relying on my emotions and my feelings and I’m reacting based on what’s going on around me which is often very chaotic…kids with tons of energy, multitasking all the things, our belongings getting out of place, spend a lot of time together and getting frustrated with each other bechase of it… it is so easy to fail and get discouraged time and time again. My emotions and my feelings are not healthy 24/7. Affirmations help me to stay grounded and focused on what truly matters.

I hope that after hearing this episode, you’ll take some time to write your own affirmations and maybe take some of your favorite verses and chose words that will really speak to your heart. When you get into a funk and you’re feeling completely out of control and overwhelmed, step away…go to the bathroom and speak them out loud.

I say mine in the morning because it helps set my day up and helps me to reflect and keep my mind renewed and focused on the right things so that when the kids get up, I’m in the right state of mind so if having a productive morning routine or getting motivated to begin a morning routine for the first time is something that you’d like to do, I have a free download that will help you do that! You can download “Your Morning Motivation” at simplyfreeing.com/morning.

Just know that if you choose to incorporate affirmations into your life this is not something that has to happen in the mornings only. This is something that can happen throughout your entire day. You can memorize them, put them on post it notes in different places around your house where you typically find yourself feeling frustrated like in the laundry room or in the kitchen, for example. You can really set up your space with with the affirmations that are going to encourage and lift you up instead of constantly having negative thoughts in your mind over and over again.

I hope this episode was encouraging for you. If you haven’t joined this Simply Freeing Podcast Facebook community, I’d love to have you there. You can find that community at facebook.com/groups/simplyfreeing. This group is totally free. I hope that it’ll be a place that we can share and encourage each other and talk about the topics that we bring up in this podcast.

I hope that this episode has inspired you to create some of your own affirmations and begin seeing changes in your life because of it. I’ll see you next week!