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  • - So lately I've found myself in a bit of a slump.

  • I really don't have a lot of motivation.

  • I've been doubting a lot about what I've been doing

  • with my life. (laughs)

  • And, you know, I just, I-I feel like I'm-I'm in a rut.

  • And so I thought, hey, why not try daily affirmations?

  • Why not?

  • (upbeat instrumental music)

  • If you haven't yet been initiated into the wonderful world

  • of positive thinking and daily affirmations,

  • here's what it's all about.

  • Most people go throughout their day

  • followed by a trail of negative self-talk.

  • (text popping) We're filled with doubt,

  • anxieties, and we're constantly questioning

  • our own abilities.

  • A daily affirmation is intended to break that cycle

  • by reinforcing positive thoughts about yourself.

  • How do you do this?

  • By reading a script in front of a mirror every morning.

  • I am beautiful, (text popping)

  • confident and strong. (text popping)

  • And the repetition is supposed to change

  • how you actually think about yourself.

  • Does it work?

  • Well, that's what I wanna find out,

  • and so I'm gonna try daily affirmations for the next week.

  • This video is brought to you by Storyblocks,

  • I'll talk more about them later.

  • Okay, and so to get started, I need to find an affirmation.

  • Now, I suppose I could write one myself

  • but I wanna get started off nice and easy.

  • So I'm just gonna Google it, and I'm just gonna see

  • if I can find any daily affirmations that really align

  • with what I'm going through right now.

  • And so primarily what I'm going through

  • is lack of motivation, self-doubt, and perfectionism.

  • So I don't know if I can find one

  • that hits all three, (chuckles)

  • or really there's probably like five or 10 things

  • that are going on right now.

  • But anyway, I'm gonna find one that fits best

  • with what I'm going through,

  • and then I'm gonna do it.

  • (uplifting instrumental music)

  • So let's do it.

  • (uplifting instrumental music) (keyboard keys clacking)

  • (whistling)

  • I don't like these.

  • (laughing)

  • Okay. No, this is so bad.

  • This is gross.

  • I thought an affirmation was like a paragraph.

  • This is fucking hard.

  • I don't think I can do this. (laughing)

  • Oh my God.

  • I don't think I can do it.

  • These are so corny. (clicking)

  • I'd rather do cold showers every day for an entire year.

  • Then have to read this out loud.

  • It's fine.

  • It's fine.

  • This is cool.

  • Nobody's going to laugh at me.

  • Okay, so I have found one that feels somewhat reasonable

  • for me.

  • It's not completely corny and over the top, and it seems to

  • have some of what I'm going through, baked into it

  • and so I'm going to do it.

  • Now.

  • (sigh)

  • (clears throat)

  • Life doesn't have to be perfect, to be beautiful.

  • I am more than enough.

  • Okay. Don't joke.

  • This is serious.

  • Take it seriously.

  • Peace and happiness are inside me. (laughs)

  • It's hard not to like, okay, this is serious.

  • This is real. This is real.

  • Okay, here we go.

  • (laughs)

  • If you can't already tell daily affirmations

  • aren't exactly my thing.

  • I'm not into woo woo self-development stuff.

  • And this is clearly not in my very small comfort zone

  • but I'm a strong believer

  • in experimentation and testing your own assumptions

  • and since I'm currently in a funk, I thought, why not?

  • In fact, I think this should actually be an ongoing series

  • on this channel.

  • We can call it.

  • Don't knock it because you shouldn't knock it

  • until you try it unless we're talking about drugs

  • because then you should definitely try it.

  • Don't try it.

  • Don't do drugs kids.

  • It's a bad idea.

  • I accept and love myself for who I am.

  • That's it?

  • That was it. That's not bad.

  • I can get used to that.

  • It was weird in the beginning, but cool.

  • (alarm)

  • All right, so I've been doing this daily affirmation thing

  • for a couple of days now.

  • It's been going pretty well

  • but I feel like there's something missing.

  • I think it's more of the personal touch,

  • so catering the daily affirmations to my own life

  • and more to the things that I'm going through as-as

  • great as it feels

  • looking in the mirror and calling myself beautiful.

  • I want to kind of narrow it

  • in on myself and-and my life more specifically.

  • And so I figured I should get some help with this.

  • And so I'm going to actually ask Natalie to help me

  • out in crafting the perfect affirmation.

  • All right, Nat, so I need your help.

  • So I've been working on daily affirmations

  • - Have you? Did you start?

  • - Yeah, I did actually look it, these are the

  • - No, you didn't.

  • - Yeah, look it, these are the daily affirmations.

  • - Oh my god, really?

  • - Yeah, yeah

  • (laughs)

  • - Do we even know each other?

  • You want me to write one?

  • - Yeah, so this is the deal is that these are

  • daily affirmations I just pulled from the internet

  • and some of them are really corny.

  • Like it's, it's been kind of funny

  • but it's like, I am strong, beautiful and confident.

  • I just ripped, I just pulled one.

  • - You are strong.

  • - I know.

  • - Beautiful and confident.

  • - It actually felt good to-to go through that

  • but I kind of want something a little bit more personalized.

  • I feel like, you know me better than anybody

  • and so you'll be able to like

  • you understand my insecurities, the things that I go through

  • - and also your values, like you value things

  • like relationships and quality of relationships.

  • - Yeah. So help me write affirmation

  • and then I'm gonna do it.

  • - Your not going to look, right?

  • - Nope.

  • - [Matt] You feel good about them?

  • - Yeah, I think they're really good.

  • - [Matt] Great.

  • - Yep, I put a lot of thought into them.

  • - [Matt] Give me, thank you.

  • Now I've got an audience for my affirmation.

  • That's all right. You can just stand out of frame.

  • I have never done a daily affirmation

  • with an audience before, so okay, here we go.

  • - [Natalie] Read it out loud.

  • - I'm trying.

  • I'm trying.

  • Okay, here we go.

  • Just because you have to shave your nose does not

  • mean you are not worthy.

  • There comes a day when you realize

  • that it's actually impossible to hum while holding your nose

  • and you're 100% okay with that.

  • That's like about acceptance.

  • That's like nice.

  • If avocados teach us anything

  • it's that you don't have to be rock hard to be delicious.

  • That's really beautiful.

  • And that's it.

  • Those are my daily affirmations now.

  • Yeah, you did a great job.

  • - [Natalie] Oh, good. I'm glad.

  • I might have to change these.

  • - No, you're welcome.

  • - (laughs) That's not how you hug.

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  • you can use the link down in the description below.

  • All right, so I think it's safe to say

  • that Natalie's daily affirmations aren't gonna really work

  • out for me.

  • And so I want to find some daily affirmations

  • that really resonate with me to wrap up

  • this experiment and to see

  • if it really can make a positive change in my life.

  • And so what I'm going to do is

  • because I don't want to just write these from scratch.

  • I'm not super confident

  • that I'll be able to do a good job myself.

  • What I'm going to do is I'm going to look

  • up my personality type online.

  • Now this isn't something that's necessarily backed

  • by science but I have found it to be pretty accurate

  • in the past.

  • The personality types that I typically look at

  • are called Enneagrams.

  • And so I think there are like nine types

  • of Enneagrams and I find that I resonate most with type one.

  • The type one Enneagram is

  • defines somebody that's rational and idealistic, principled,

  • purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionist.

  • So right there, you can already see

  • that that pretty much aligns with my personality.

  • (typing)

  • All right,

  • so I'm all wrapped up with my new daily affirmations.

  • What I've done is I've pulled some new ones using

  • my Enneagram type one here.

  • I've also pulled some of my favorites from the old one

  • that I was doing.

  • I didn't take any of Nat's, not even happy wife, happy life.

  • And I also did write a couple original ones that I

  • didn't see there, but I was inspired by-by what

  • I read online to make a new one.

  • And so let me read a couple of these to you

  • that I think maybe resonate the most with me.

  • I release my need for control.

  • I am perfect, even in all my imperfections,

  • I set reasonable expectations with myself.

  • I think that's a really big one.

  • I have enough to be happy in this moment.

  • That's-that's one that's that I-that I wrote

  • that's definitely deeply rooted in minimalism and really

  • figuring out how much is enough for you.

  • No matter how long you've been practicing minimalism,

  • intentionality, whatever.

  • This is something you constantly have to remind yourself

  • that you are enough and you have enough.

  • And so I'm going to give a crack at this

  • the new daily affirmations

  • and see how these go for the next couple of days.

  • Heading into this experiment

  • I wanted to hate it.

  • I really did.

  • I had a bias going into this.

  • I'm not going to lie.

  • I thought daily affirmations were dumb.

  • They were cliche.

  • And I was certain that there was no way

  • that it was going to help me and I was actually wrong.

  • You know, I'm very hesitant to-to

  • jump on the bandwagon when it comes

  • to any of these practices in self-development

  • or wellness that are kind of woo, woo, spiritual

  • and really don't have grounding in science.

  • They're things that are all about finding your truth

  • versus the actual truth and you know what to each their own

  • you know, if something works for you, that's great.

  • But the whole point of this experiment is to

  • try these things that I really have an adverse reaction to.

  • And so, yeah, I actually found

  • out that daily affirmations were really beneficial

  • and for three main reasons.

  • So first it really helps to develop self-awareness,

  • self-awareness is such a critical skill.

  • It's one of those underlying traits that

  • if you build it can help so many other areas of your life

  • and it can help to really build strong relationships

  • with others.

  • When you know yourself first

  • when you know the things that you're thinking

  • those negative thought patterns that you go down over

  • and over again, when you wake up to them

  • and-and for me that has usually been through meditation

  • it really allows you to get clear

  • on what you need to work on.

  • What are the mistakes that you keep making

  • over and over again?,

  • What's preventing you from being happy?

  • And the second area where I found it help was

  • that it really allows you to be vulnerable

  • and I think even committing to a practice like this

  • where you would typically not do it

  • because of what you think others might think of you

  • it allows you to, to start to chip away

  • at your ego a little bit

  • as you saw from this experiment in the very beginning

  • the first daily affirmation that I read to myself

  • I really had to kind of break

  • down some walls in myself to be able to try this

  • and so I think anything that breaks

  • down those walls that allows you to be more

  • vulnerable is a good thing.

  • And finally, I'd say that

  • because you're gaining greater self-awareness

  • it does allow you to stop yourself

  • from thinking negative thoughts.

  • Now it doesn't completely get rid of it, just as meditation

  • doesn't completely rid yourself

  • of some toxic thoughts and beliefs about yourself.

  • It does get you to start moving in that direction.

  • It takes a whole lot of work.

  • And I don't think just reading something

  • into a mirror is going to magically change who you are

  • but I do think it is a great first step.

  • If you're looking to make any self-development change,

  • you know, like everything within the self-development world

  • daily affirmations is not a magic bullet.

  • It's not something that's going to completely

  • radically change your life

  • but should you knock it or should you try it?

  • I definitely think you should try it.

  • I think you should give it a go, you know,

  • do a little bit of research for yourself.

  • Try it for a week, you know, a week such a simple experiment

  • that you may be able to gain some benefits from.

  • Now I would encourage you to do this privately.

  • That's just me personally.

  • I still find it embarrassing to do even in front of my wife

  • and so wait until everybody's outside of the house

  • clear your throat and give those daily affirmations a shot.

- So lately I've found myself in a bit of a slump.

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