#7 Ways to Use Affirmation Cards

Affirmations are a proven way to retrain your thinking processes. Small but regular repetition of phrases can determine the direction of your thought train. Regularly writing affirmations down is scientifically most effective, then speaking them and seeing them. False affirmations such as saying you are rich (when you’re poor) or saying that you are thin (when you overweight) can seem that you are lying to yourself or simply deluded! The best affirmations are supportive ones for your journey so ‘I can do this’ or ‘I can resist temptation’ are the type of thing that you want to say to keep you on track and make changes.

My affirmation cards are themed to subjects so that you can find yourself messages that resonate with what you’d like to work on or achieve. Reading my other posts will help build your knowledge around each cards meaning.

My affirmation card pack themes currently include:

• Assertiveness
  (building an assertive mindset and verbal skills)

• Relating to others
  (facing positive and negative aspects to relationships)

• Drive & Determination
  (building grit and resilience)

• Growth Mindset
  (learning to grow from mistakes and be persistent)

• Calm & Balance
  (learning to find time out to relax and pause)

• Joy & Confidence
  (building more positivity and happiness in your life)

#1 enjoy family time together

Spending time with your children inventing games and activities with the cards is a great way to develop both yourself and set an example to your children. Children learn best when they see behaviour in action rather than being simply told. You can choose a random card for a theme for discussion or let the cards choose what theme of activity you will participate in together on a particular day. Be creative, try new things and push your boundaries together. Ideas can be:-

• Role play assertive solutions to common scenarios

•Take up a hobby that involves escaping your comfort zone, learning by trial and error and persistence

• Simply spend time in nature or being creative together

#3 find a place to view them often

Simply placing the cards where you can see the often such as your office desk, a pin board or on your fridge. You can also place them at an appropriate site to their theme such as healthy options near the sweet cupboard! Basically somewhere that you will read them regularly without too much effort involved. You might just want to have them for decoration or positive inspiration.

#3 pick a daily theme

Choose a random one for the day and make sure you do an activity related to the card. Maybe you will do a random act of kindness or be especially creative that day. You may want to make sure you eat healthily or work on a particular assertive technique that you struggle with. Spend time meditating upon a cards theme and see what comes to mind or you may want to think more logically.

#4 Have them on a vision board

Vision boards are a fun, effective way to focus and identify what you’d like to achieve. They also give you a solid visual overview of your life goals and what you’d like to achieve in the near or far future. You can have the board on show or privately just for you but by having a constant reminder and focus for our aims in life, we can make sure that we are making small but regular steps in the right direction. There are several ways to create vision boards digitally on your computer using software and print them out (have as your desktop picture?) or you can cut out sections from magazines to stick down and create a physical board. Boards can be themed to an objective ‘my career’ or to a time frame ‘what I want to achieve in 2020’. Affirmation cards can be included as part of your larger board design but most of all have fun, and be creative!

#5 work on a particular aspect

Spend time looking through your card pack and look at what messages each card can teach you. Lessons can be subjective to how you view the words, your unique life experiences and where you feel you need to progress in your own personal development. Work through each card at a time if you like, spending time to absorb each one’s message and lesson. You can always get a feel for each card and refocus back over any areas that you feel weakest on. Sometimes you may feel that you need to be stronger, more energetic, creative or find time to pause and relax.

#6 Have them on an inspiration table

My personal favourite is to have an inspiration table where I keep items to inspire my current interests and goals. I include objects such as crystals, candles, statues, gifts, images or photos, meaningful items, cute ornaments, spiritual quotes, flowers and of course a relevant card. I may decide that I need more time to relax if I've been feeling stressed so I may include some blue lace agate, rose quartz, a lavender candle, my meditation bowl, a calming quote (maybe from a greeting card) and of course the ‘calm’ affirmation card. You can do various themes of colour or objectives such as happiness, joy, confidence, energy, balance, abundance or creativity.

#7 make a great (last minute) gift

Lastly the great benefit is that the cards are also available as a digital download meaning that they are great for last minute gifts or to send to someone that you’re not going to physically see very soon. Happy days! The physical cards also make a great gift for your spiritual friend or anyone you fancy. Printed double sided (flower of life design to back) on quality 350gsm card and are sealed both sides for endurance from light spills. Sure to delight anyone who loves some artistic personal inspiration!