The Healing Power & Magic of Affirmations
(Excerpt from Affirmations for Empaths: A Year of Guided Journaling by Judith Orloff MD)
I ADORE AFFIRMATIONS because they are simple, quick, and effective ways to stay in your best self and reframe unproductive thoughts. I use them personally and recommend them to my patients. Affirmations are potent tools that can radically enhance the quality of your life.
I consider affirmations friends whom I can call upon when I need to regain my center, reinforce my strengths, or compassionately adjust my attitude. For empaths and all caring people, they are a crucial element of self-care. Affirmations will help you manage the challenges of being sensitive, such as taking on other people’s stress and over-giving, and to embrace the gifts, such as intuition and the joyfulness of connection.
As a psychiatrist, I know how vital it is to heal emotional wounds with the proper therapeutic support. However, I also realize that much of suffering is amplified by a lack of self-love. Affirmations let you gently shift the beliefs that keep you from lovingly accepting yourself and others.
Affirmations are not meant to “emotionally bypass” difficult feelings or sugarcoat hurt with inspiring words. They are positive statements to counter fears, self-doubts, anxieties, and negative stories that replay in your mind. Affirmations help you reprogram outdated beliefs—and they are energy shifters. Words and beliefs contain emotional energy. Affirmations let you say “no” to any thoughts and energies that don’t serve you and help you say “yes” to a new mindset. Continue Reading Here
Judith Orloff, MD is the New York Times best-selling author of The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People. Her new book Thriving as an Empath offers daily self-care tools for sensitive people along with its companion The Empath’s Empowerment Journal. Dr. Orloff is a psychiatrist, an empath, and is on the UCLA Psychiatric Clinical Faculty. She synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff also specializes in treating empaths and highly sensitive people in her private practice. Dr. Orloff’s work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, the New York Times and USA Today. Dr. Orloff has spoken at Google-LA and has a TEDX talk. Her other books are Emotional Freedom, The Power of Surrender, Second Sight, Positive Energy, and Guide to Intuitive Healing. Explore more information about her Empath Support Online course and speaking schedule on www.drjudithorloff.com