Life Issues: Teenage Affirmations

Today, we're talking about teenage affirmations, the power they have, and a brief list of some that I find to be great (along with an explanation of what they mean for teens today). I hope you enjoy!

To begin I would like to define an affirmation as being a statement that is declared to be true. Let me rephrase that, it is a statement that is declared to be true by the person doing the affirming! They are true across the board, and unique to the individual using them.

Many teens today do not understand the power of affirmations, and even less actually use them. I never did, until I became older and able to understand that these are important in anyone’s life. The simple act of telling yourself that ‘I am wonderful’ works wonders. Reading the list that I have compiled for teens can have a positive effect on their lives. It can cause them to think differently of themselves and the people around them. These affirmations can be read in any order, day or night! They can be used to lift your spirits or to start your day off on the right foot! And so the list begins:

1. I am a responsible individual; irresponsibility is not in my vocabulary.
1. This affirmation applies to any and everyone. It’s a basic statement meaning that you are responsible for your own actions, whether they are good or bad. By saying this, you are accepting that being irresponsible is unacceptable. Ex: your chores every Monday is to take the trash to the curb. If you forget next Monday, you agree to take full responsibility for your actions!
2. If I love myself, others will learn to love themselves as well.
1. It is true that people rub off on each other! Loving yourself completely and accepting your flaws is very important in life. Ex: if you and your best friend are both having issues with being accepted by the ‘in-crowd’ at school, chances are once you decide that it’s ok to be different and that you love yourself regardless, your friend will do the same. They will begin to see the same qualities in themselves and will appreciate them more!
3. I am ME; I am creative, unique, smart, and beautiful. I am all of the above.
1. Accepting yourself for who you really are! These tie in with loving yourself, and loving the individual traits that you possess.
4. Yesterday is history, today I will make memories, tomorrow is only a dream.
1. You cannot change things that happen yesterday, it’s the past. Today you can learn from those things, and possibly do things differently. Tomorrow, you can do the same thing you did today, only better! Remember that the only thing that is constant in life is change!
5. I am successful in absolutely everything I do.
1. Self-explanatory! No exceptions. You are successful because you said so, and that’s all that matters!
6. I control my own destiny.
1. Yes you do! Your destiny could include landing a job, attending an Ivy-League school, or simply raising your GPA. All of these goals start with YOU!
7. I am the creator of my own problems. I will not bring others into the fire with me.
1. This is a tough one to sometimes understand, and a lot of people mistake this affirmation as being about ‘snitching’. Let me explain to you what I mean. Any problem that you create, you are RESPONSIBLE for. When I say don’t bring others into the fire with you, I mean don’t intentionally try to make people feel down because of your problems. Again, you are in control of your own problems; therefore blaming your mom because you failed a class simply will not cut it! Get my drift?
8. I am different and so is everyone else; therefore I cannot judge.
1. Everyone was created equally, yet differently. Sometimes people are not in control of their differences, so who are you to judge them because of their differences? Just like they are different from you, you are different from them. That’s the point of being different; you’re not supposed to be the same!
9. I control my emotions; they don’t control me.
1. Now I must say that this gets complicated. Sometimes your emotions do control you and you have no choice but to release them. However, you control your reaction to these emotions. For instance… your GPA drops, which in turn causes you to be upset. Instead of taking your anger out on your teachers, you can control this reaction. This is when thinking before acting comes into play. If you think beforehand, you won’t have to explain your actions. You can simply think about why your GPA dropped, and it may be because things changed at home that interfered with your study habits. So doesn’t this mean that your teacher had absolutely nothing to do with it? Indeed it does. Think about it.

Start your list today... I'm not joking! Feel free to add to this list! Also, check out my guest post on Vanessa Van Petten's wonderful site: On Teens Today!