Affirmations are an easy, empirically validated way to reduce stress and anxiety.

Despite the minimal effort required, many individuals tend to shun affirmations.

Affirmations may be seen as hokey or cringey, and many of us are uncomfortable with self-praise.

Affirmations may be one of the most effective psychological tools that people refuse to use. As a psychologist, I am trained in multiple forms of therapy. Although I am qualified as a psychoanalyst, I regularly draw from CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), and existential therapy. Like many clinicians today, I would describe my orientation as eclectic: I use whatever method seems most helpful for a given client. Ironically, one of the simplest strategies I recommend is often rejected immediately.

Clients often dismiss them as “hokey,” “cringey,” or a silly parody of self-help culture.

Human beings love quick fixes and simple solutions, especially in our current climate of immediate gratification. Artificial intelligence can write an email for us in seconds, and we are actually impatient when it takes any longer than that. Packages can arrive in hours, and it seems antiquated when we must wait for more than a few days for our skin care product or new gadget.

This is, perhaps, why power posing was so attractive to us. The idea that striking an empowering position for two minutes could boost our well-being and self-esteem sounded very appealing. Too bad that the concept has been (partially) debunked due to a failure to replicate the findings, although it is important to note that the experience of felt power was replicated.

The Stuart Smalley Effect

Another simple strategy, affirmations, keeps popping up in psychological studies as something genuinely helpful. So, why are we not all doing them?

I call it the Stuart Smalley effect.

For those who do not recall (or are too young), Al Franken played a fictional self-help guru who recommended affirmations for every problem. “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggone it, people like me.” Affirmations became a punchline and a funny one at that.

I feel like Stuart Smalley when I tell clients to look in the mirror and say, “I love you” or other self-compassionate statements out loud. I can barely keep a straight face as I say this, even though researcher Nicola Petrocchi and colleagues (2017) demonstrate its effectiveness for increasing positive emotions.

A recent meta-analysis of 89 studies also points to the empirically validated benefits of affirmations. Zhang and colleagues from the University of Hong Kong found that self-affirmations had a positive effect on general well-being, social well-being, and self-perception. Again, effective and largely underutilized in my experience.

Ultimately, I worry that we just do not love ourselves that much, so self-love feels embarrassing, narcissistic, and weird. The term “self-care” is thrown around a lot these days. In fact, I use it when I teach Wellness to my psychiatry residents at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Self-care has come to mean going to the spa or skipping work for a mental health day. Genuine and meaningful self-care, however, is really self-love.

And affirmations can get you closer to that experience.

What I recommend should be the easiest thing in the world to do:

Create an affirmation that resonates with you. It must feel genuine, important, and true.

Repeat that affirmation at least three times per day.

Do it every day for at least a month.

The good news is that the process will become less cringey if you embrace it. You may even look forward to doing it, although the absence of self-judgment is a good place to start. Most of us tend to be very hard on ourselves. We think that beating up on ourselves internally is the best way to motivate ourselves. (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

Instead, self-compassion, showing up despite fear, and adopting a growth mindset are better ways to motivate ourselves. And remember, you are good enough, you are smart enough, and, doggone it, people like you.

Petrocchi, N. Ottaviani, C. & Couyoumdjian, A. (2017) Compassion at the mirror: Exposure to a mirror increases the efficacy of a self-compassion manipulation in enhancing soothing positive affect and heart rate variability. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12:6, 525–536.

Zhang, Y., Chen, B., Wang, M., & Hu, X. (2025, October 27). The impact of self-affirmation interventions on well-being: A meta-analysis. American Psychologist. Advance online publication.

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