day 5: speak it. believe it. repeat.

hey there and welcome/welcome back to maia & more!! i hope everyone is having an awesome day and hope this makes your day a little bit brighter. today's topic is daily affirmations. 

affirmations may seem a little silly and cringy, but isn't everything at first? until something is popular or famous, it seems cringy. but here's the truth: positive affirmations can help you with so many things. affirmations can help you overcome anxiety, become more confident, and most importantly, help you become the person you want to be. 

one of my best friends, emma, plays lacrosse, and her coach had told the team to tell themselves 3 positive affirmations each morning one of which was:

• "i am an alpha female"

when emma told me that i definitely laughed out loud. so, i think you can see why kinda of frowned upon daily affirmations. now, daily affirmations are something that i am a 100% a believer of. by now, i think that it's pretty common knowledge that your self-talk defines so much about you. it can make you more introverted and insecure, but it can also empower you and make you more confident. if you talk yourself down, of course you are gonna feel more sad. this is the same concept of "if you convince yourself that you are sick, you'll get sick."

i'm not sure what changed inside of me, but i started to write affirmations on my bathroom mirror, so that every time i would wash my hands or get ready in the morning, i would see these affirmations and say to myself, "yeah its true and i believe it." this has gave me such a confidence boost because instead of just hearing from my mom that i'm strong, i KNOW that i'm strong. i start to notice how i'm strong. 

am i strong just because i can endure a 4 hour practice? or am i strong because i train with some of the top athletes in istanbul? am i strong because i don't cry anymore when i mess up in school? or is it the fact that through all of the rough moments of being a teenage girl and having raging emotions i still push through it all? the answer to those are all yeses. i'm strong because of all the things that make me who i am today and i will continue to be strong and become someone that is proud of herself from head to toe. 

here are some examples of affirmations that you could implement in your life, but if these don't apply to you, find ones that do:

all this to say, try some daily affirmations for two weeks. put them on your mirror, your phone lock screen, or anywhere that you are constantly looking. write how you feel before you start, and see if you notice a difference afterwards. treat yourself kindly, because you only have one of yourself. and don't wait for the person you want to become to just appear out of thin air. you have to work at it to become that person. with that being said, i hope you enjoyed today's blog and i hope this opened your eyes or inspired you in some way. thank you for reading and catch ya on the next one!

don't wish for it, work for it.