10 Positive Affirmations for Fighting Anxiety

Suffering from anxiety?

You’re not alone. In fact, 40 million adults in the U.S. struggle with anxiety disorders. That’s more than 18% of the population.

If you’re part of that staggering statistic, I know how you feel.

For many years, I struggled with anxiety. My mental wellness struggles stole my ability to fully enjoy the abundance of life and embrace my own personal potential.

But even as I fought to gain control of my anxious thought spirals, I knew that anxiety did not have to define me.

I could take back control of my life.

Mindfulness—in addition to a holistic focus on exercise and nutrition—has been the key to my journey toward mental wellness.

Incorporating positive affirmations into my daily routine is one powerful mindfulness practice that has helped me manage my anxiety and curtail negative thought patterns from taking over my day.

While there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to support a personal affirmation practice, there’s also scientific evidence to back it. A study using MRI results suggests that “certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks.”

In other words, our brains get a boost from a practice of positive self-talk.

By feeding our minds with empowering self-affirmations, we decrease stress levels and build our sense of resiliency by helping us to not dwell on—and thus allow ourselves to be defined by—negative experiences.

How to Put Positive Self-Affirmations into Practice

Repetition is important when it comes to positive self-affirmation. Just as we need to regularly exercise to build stamina and strength, we need to consistently expose ourselves to positive self-thoughts.

Choose 2 - 3 anxiety-fighting affirmations from the list below. Write these affirmations in a place where you will see them often: like on your bathroom mirror, on a sticky note taped to your desktop computer, or on your refrigerator. You want to be able to see these affirming statements several times throughout your day. You may even want to repeat these statements out loud to yourself to allow the truth of the statements to sink in.

How to know which affirmations are right for you?

If you find feelings of resistance in your body as you read a particular affirmation below, pay attention. This could be an indication that this positive affirmation is contrary to a limiting belief you hold.

A limiting belief is a deeply-ingrained thought you hold about yourself or others, often derived from a negative experience, that constrains your life in some way.

For instance, a teacher from elementary school may have told you that you weren’t good at math. You internalized this comment, allowing the thought of “I’m not good at math” to become a belief that influenced your identity and, ultimately, your choices, as you avoided taking advanced math courses in school and, later, chose a career that wouldn’t involve math skills.

Consider this on a deeper level. Perhaps you had an aloof caregiver growing up who didn’t offer you the affection you craved as a child. These negative experiences may have led you to internalize a limiting belief along the lines of “I am unlovable”—a thought pattern that can lead to long-term health consequences, both physically, relationally, and mentally.

If you discover yourself resisting certain affirmations in this list below, it is worth exploring whether or not this affirmation is challenging a limiting belief you hold. You can read more about identifying limiting beliefs here.

Those affirmations that make you uncomfortable might be exactly the affirmations you need to practice as a way to gently dismantle your harmful limiting beliefs.

Grab a pen and sticky note, and take your pick from the 10 affirmations from anxiety below: