When I was growing up my dad had these quotes on our fridge. You couldn’t grab an apple for ice cream without constantly being reminded about the power of positivity.
” If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t you’re right”
and
“A positive attitude isn’t a 100% way to success, but a negative attitude is a 100% way to failure.”
As a teenager when I was having a hard time and wanted to give up sometimes I would look at those words and get angry. How could just thinking positively change anything? What did my dad know?
Those words challenged me. They were in a place where I saw them everyday, read them every day and soon when all I could think was negative thoughts and I wasn’t getting anywhere (surprise, surprise) I was challenged to change my mind-set. Sometimes thinking positive thoughts wasn’t enough though so I started I writing them down. When writing them wasn’t enough I said them out loud. I shifted my thinking from I can’t to watch me!
It’s been a valubale lesson that has continued to served me well as an adult. When someone tells me I can’t I see it as an opportunity to try, even when the person telling me I can’t is me.
The most life changing use of positive thinking was during my third and last pregnancy. I knew what I wanted from that birth and yet I was challenged mentally in a way I hadn’t expected. So I did what I learned to do, I spent a LOT of my last few weeks of pregnancy surrounding myself with things that would bring me up. I had a beautiful note a friend wrote me on my refrigerator door. I had a birth affirmation banner my friends made with me hanging in my dining room. I had sticky notes with empowering words on my bathroom mirror. I had a rock with the word TRUST made for me. When reading these wasn’t enough, I said them out loud over and over. This kept me going, not just through my pregnancy but my birth. Over and over during waves I kept saying ” You can do this, you ARE doing this.” And when I couldn’t say these things to myself anymore the people supporting me at my birth said them. When I hit a very hard moment in my birth I started saying “no” over and over. Someone told me “yes, you’re doing it, yes” the second I started saying yes, my baby dropped into the birth canal. Moments later she was in my arms. It was an intensely powerful moment. I will never doubt the power of positive thinking ever again.
Here is a list of my favourite birth affirmations and words. What affirmations are your favourite?
Open, open, open
My baby knows how to be born
My baby is smart
Just like my body knew how to grow this baby, my body knows how to birth this baby
I trust my body
Each wave brings me closer to my baby
I am doing this
I am strong
I can do anything for 1 minute
I am strong, I am supported, I am loved
I am safe
I belive in birth
Vaginas do open, babies do come out
I am going to meet my baby
Relax
Surrender
Let it go
You’re going to get HUGE
Let your body shine
You are powerful, you are enough, you are beautiful