New research has highlighted how even brief self-affirmations – reflecting on your positive attributes – can boost general well-being and sense of self-worth, with the effects being felt longer-term.
Taking the time to acknowledge what you like about yourself and reminding yourself of your inner strength not only boosts social well-being and self-perception, but it can also help to reduce anxiety and low mood, the research team says.
Study author Minhong (Maggie) Wang, PhD, from The University of Hong Kong, said: “Even brief, low-cost self-affirmation exercises can yield significant psychological benefits in terms of enhancing personal and social well-being.
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“More importantly, these benefits are both immediate and long-lasting.
“The findings advocate for integrating self-affirmation strategies into well-being programmes, particularly in schools and universities.
“Educators and parents can use self-affirmation strategies to provide immediate psychological support to help students navigate challenges and build resilience in difficult situations. These strategies can foster individual and social well-being as well as strengthen social connections within communities.”
While previous studies have looked at the effect of self-affirmations on specific outcomes, such as smoking cessation and academic performance, Wang and her colleagues set out to evaluate if the practice also has more general positive effects on people’s well-being, and how long the effects may last.
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They carried out a review of 129 studies from around the world involving self-affirmations which involved 17,748 participants. They only looked at studies where self-affirmation was not part of a larger intervention and included at least one well-being measure.
Along with the positive effect on general well-being, researchers found that practising self-affirmations can have a longer-term impact, with the effects persisting over an average follow-up time of nearly two weeks.
Researchers found that the effects of talking positively to yourself was stronger in adults than adolescents, and the positive impact on general well-being was more significant among Americans compared with Asian and European participants.
Read more in American Psychologist
