The inner life
Affirmation
Direct answer
Affirmation: An affirmation is a short sentence a person repeats to themselves on purpose, to fix an aim or a view of themselves in mind.
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At a glance
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Manifestation, Law of Attraction, New Thought, Mantra
An affirmation is a short sentence a person repeats to themselves on purpose, to fix an aim or a view of themselves in mind.
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What is an affirmation?
An affirmation is a deliberate self-statement, said aloud, silently or in writing, usually in the present tense and the first person. In New Thought it was paired with denial: the believer affirmed health and denied the reality of illness. In modern self-help it is most often a sentence of encouragement repeated daily.
Psychology separates two things under the word. Positive self-statements, such as 'I am confident', have mixed results and can leave a person who does not believe them feeling worse. Self-affirmation in the research sense means reflecting on a value one truly holds, and many studies find that it makes people less defensive when their sense of themselves is under threat.
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What sets Affirmation apart
Grammar is the distinctive feature. An affirmation is cast in the first person and the present tense, as though the wished-for state already held, and it is meant to be repeated at set times, often aloud. Coué's instruction was twenty repetitions on waking and twenty before sleep, counted on a knotted string, in a flat voice and with no effort of the will. The research term self-affirmation shares the word but not the method: it is a single piece of writing about a value.
- Form: first person, present tense, short enough to repeat
- Coué's formula: 'Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better'
- Coué's dose: twenty times on waking and twenty before sleep, counted on a knotted string
- Theory: self-affirmation theory, Claude Steele, 1988
- Warning study: Wood, Perunovic and Lee, Psychological Science, 2009
Often mistaken for something else: A mantra is a sacred sound or phrase repeated for its own sake in Hindu and Buddhist practice; an affirmation is a plain sentence in one's own language, repeated for what it says.
The story behind Affirmation
The practice was made popular by Émile Coué, a French pharmacist whose patients repeated that every day, in every way, they were getting better and better; his book on conscious autosuggestion appeared in the early 1920s. New Thought churches had used spoken affirmations since the 1890s. Claude Steele set out self-affirmation theory in 1988, and a 2009 study by Joanne Wood and colleagues showed how positive self-statements can backfire.
Why Affirmation matters
Affirmation is the commonest tool in manifestation teaching, and the research says clearly which kind helps and which kind can hurt.
How to read Affirmation
A reader writes one believable sentence tied to something they value, repeats it at a set moment, and follows it with a small act.
Affirmation in practice: an example
'I am learning to ask for what I need' is an affirmation a reader can believe today and act on before the day ends.
Where readings of Affirmation go wrong
Repeated words change no events by themselves, and a sentence that stings or rings false is to be rewritten, not forced.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- affirmations, positive affirmations, affirmation meaning, daily affirmations, self-affirmation
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is an affirmation?
It is a short sentence a person repeats to themselves on purpose, usually in the present tense, to keep an aim or a kinder view of themselves in mind.
Do affirmations work?
It depends on the kind. Writing about a value one holds has support from many experiments. Repeating a flattering sentence one does not believe has weak support, and in one 2009 study it made people with low self-esteem feel worse.
How do I write a good affirmation?
Keep it believable today, name something to do and not only something to be, and tie it to a value already held. Then follow the sentence with one small act that fits it.
