How Positive Affirmations Can Help Boost Body Confidence

We think with our entire body. What we say affects how we feel. How we feel affects how we behave. How we behave affects what we achieve. Thus, we must learn to effectively communicate with our bodies so that we have control over our performance and overall results.

When you and your clients talk positively to yourselves with conviction about things you believe you already have or can have, it works to secure those messages in your subconscious mind, giving you the best shot at behaving positively and realizing positive results. The statements you choose must be clear, concise and, most of all, believable. It doesn’t matter if they are believable to others as long as you believe in them (Bull, Albinson & Shambrook 2002). Examples of positive technical cues:

• Keep your head up.
• Push through your heels.
• Squeeze your abs.
• Keep your head up.

Examples of positive affirmations:

• Every day in every way my body gets stronger and stronger.
• All I am is all I need to make something happen today.
• I am in control of my destiny, and it starts right now.

Examples of positive intentions:

• I will attend three yoga classes this week.
• If I need to, I will take a 3-minute active rest,
  but only after I’ve run for 20 minutes.
• I will embrace discomfort and perform one
  more push-up in my sets today.

To read more about how mindset affects physical performance, please see “Mental Toughness Techniques for Peak Performance” in the online IDEA Library or in the June 2015 print issue of IDEA Fitness Journal. If you cannot access the full article and would like to, please contact the IDEA Inspired Service Team at (800) 999-4332, ext. 7.