29. Mirror Talk and Self-Affirmations To Improve Your Confidence
In the latest episode of Sturdy Girl, titled "Transform Your Confidence with Self-Affirmations," hosts Jess and Megan delve into the transformative power of self-affirmations, particularly as we transition into the season of more revealing summer attire. This episode explores the fascinating psychological effects of positive affirmations, the importance of authenticity, and the role affirmations play in combating imposter syndrome.
The episode begins with a focus on how self-affirmations can empower confidence, especially as we start wearing less clothing in the warmer months. Jess and Megan discuss the psychological impact of positive affirmations and the potential cognitive dissonance that can arise when individuals don't truly believe the affirmations they tell themselves. They emphasize the need for affirmations to feel authentic and empowering, rather than being forced or insincere. This segment also includes a light-hearted discussion on generational slang, technology use, and the resurgence of '90s and early 2000s fashion trends, highlighting how these trends affect their sense of style and self-perception.
Next, the episode shifts to strategies for enhancing self-worth through affirmations that emphasize internal qualities over physical appearance. Jess and Megan explore the impact of mirrors and media on self-objectification and share practical advice on creating affirmations based on personal values. Listeners are encouraged to write down affirmations that highlight what makes them feel good, powerful, and valued. This segment also includes a reflective exercise designed to foster a healthier, more profound sense of self-worth.
In a particularly insightful segment, Megan shares her personal journey of using affirmations to combat imposter syndrome during a certification program. She highlights the role of affirmations in reinforcing self-worth and combating feelings of inadequacy. The hosts discuss the connection between affirmations and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), advocating for the use of workbooks to actively change thought patterns. This segment underscores the necessity of believing in the affirmations we use and starting with small, achievable truths to build a healthier body image and live a more fulfilling life.
The episode concludes with an invitation for listeners to share their affirmations on Instagram for a chance to win Sturdy Girl Summer merchandise. This interactive element encourages listeners to celebrate their authentic selves and join the Sturdy Girl community in embracing living big this summer.
One of the key takeaways from this episode is the importance of creating affirmations that resonate deeply with your personal values. Jess and Megan emphasize that the most effective affirmations are those that reflect internal qualities and values, rather than focusing solely on physical appearance. This approach helps to foster a more profound sense of self-worth and well-being, as it encourages individuals to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look.
The hosts also discuss the importance of identifying the 'why' behind your affirmations. Understanding the reasons behind your affirmations can enhance their significance and effectiveness, making them more meaningful and impactful. Jess and Megan encourage listeners to engage actively with their affirmations, taking the time to reflect on why these affirmations are important to them and how they can help to reinforce their self-worth.
In addition to practical strategies for creating effective affirmations, the episode also explores the connection between affirmations and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Jess and Megan highlight how affirmations can be used as a tool to reshape belief systems and change thought patterns, advocating for the use of workbooks to actively engage with this process. This approach can help individuals to combat negative thought patterns and develop a more positive and resilient mindset.
Megan's personal story of using affirmations to combat imposter syndrome is a particularly powerful segment of the episode. She shares how affirmations helped her to navigate the challenges of a certification program, reinforcing her self-worth and combating feelings of inadequacy. This story highlights the practical application of affirmations in real-life situations, demonstrating their potential to make a significant impact on our self-perception and confidence.
The episode also includes a fun and interactive element, inviting listeners to share their affirmations on Instagram for a chance to win Sturdy Girl Summer merchandise. This encourages listeners to actively engage with the content of the episode and celebrate their authentic selves, fostering a sense of community and shared experience.
-
Jess: 0:08
Hello, friend, and welcome to Sturdy Girl, a podcast focused on strength, not size, where you will hear conversations around flexible body image, cultivating confidence and being a resilient human in both body and mind. Sturdy Girl is the podcast where we shift the focus away from your appearance and on to living the big, rad life you deserve. I'm your host, jess Heiss, dropping episodes every Friday with my co-host, megan, as we help you make the most of your Sturdy Girl summer. That is, reclaiming body confidence, wearing the swimsuit and doing the kinds of activities you want without letting your body or appearance hold you back. Hello, friends, and welcome to episode 29 of Sturdy Girl.
Jess: 0:55
Getting right into full episodes of season three, we want to talk about affirmations, and when we talk about Sturdy Girl summer, I think the best place to start is when we look in the mirror and affirmations kind of go along with that. Right, the weather's getting warmer, we're wearing less clothing, we're pulling out clothing we haven't worn in six months, taking off the puffy coats and body checking and mirror talk is bound to happen more often. I know for me recently going on an international trip and getting ready for like, oh okay, I'm going to be wearing shorts and summer dresses and swimsuits. There are certain sections of skin that hadn't seen the light of day since last summer, and so they're like transparent, white, and so that mirror talk, self-talk, body talk, whatever you want to. Oh my God, like translucent, you know, and I'm like my veins are green.
Jess: 1:40
This is a lot, and so, just thinking about those pieces of mirror self-talk of affirmations, affirmations can seem woo, woo, they can seem like BS when they're presented a lot of times in the media. But it's because of how they're presented, and so our whole point here is we want to show you what research says about it, how you can apply it and go from there. We want to empower you to have at least neutral mirror self-talk and find affirmations that work for you. So you've heard that your perception is your reality. So it stands to reason that positive affirmations can help your brain to learn to believe or convince you of what you're telling it.
Jess: 2:17
But that's actually our problem with affirmations, as most people come to see them. Right, you see, all of these are saying you, how about me? I see so much on social media of people that will, like, put sticky notes on their mirror You're beautiful, you're gorgeous, you have an amazing body. Like you're this, you're that, and they're all these big statements and they're positive. Right, they're positive affirmations, but you're telling yourself a lie If you don't believe the thing that you are saying to yourself. It's like a level of cognitive dissonance If you're putting this affirmation on your mirror for every time you look in the mirror and your body, checking or something, and you don't actually believe it.
Jess: 2:54
What are you actually doing to your brain? Right, you're writing this note down to say you're gorgeous. Okay, I'm supposed to believe I'm gorgeous, but I'm not and I don't feel it. Then you're lying Like do you think that you can just go full like delusional and convince yourself that it's true and suddenly find yourself embodying like oh, yes, I am gorgeous, yes, I have an amazing body. Look at my butt and my you know? Whatever, all this confidence will bloom, right, okay, I'm not gonna lie. So I know for a second. In my notes I, instead of saying delusional, I wrote the Lulu and Blake said that I'm too old to say that word and I honestly hadn't even heard that, besides like one TikTok.
Megan: 3:29
So you know, I think we are older than we like to admit we are.
Jess: 3:32
No, I saw a video recently of slang that I think Gen Z is using and I didn't know 90% of the words. I'm giving up. I'll just keep saying rad for everything, and people can judge me, it's fine yeah, I honestly don't even understand tiktok.
Megan: 3:48
I'm like the wrong person to ask my sister sends me tiktoks, and that's about the only reason I have tiktok these are usually instagram reels that were from tiktok. I don't actually have tiktok. That's how you know you're old. And then, if it goes one level deeper, if you see them on Facebook, oh my gosh. Anyways, let's not talk about being old, we're not old.
Jess: 4:09
We're in our 30s I am so young but when it comes to the technology piece of things or slang words, yeah, it makes me question my age for a hot second, or the fact that low rise jeans are cool again.
Megan: 4:20
Oh my gosh. Okay, can I just say something really fast? I went to the mall to go pick out some new shorts because I needed to size up and some stuff. But while at the mall I straight up had a vision that I was walking through a nineties early, two thousands music video. I was like what is happening right now? Like all the styles, yeah, tiny, like lace tops with your bra showing, and they're all like crop top. But then the baggy jeans that are like low, like super low, and the skater shoes. I was so confused they're all back.
Jess: 4:49
Yeah, and I know fashion's cyclical, but I really had hoped that ultra low rise jeans would never come back.
Megan: 4:54
I just really hope they don't get tight. I'll take the baggy jeans. Yeah, I'll take the baggy jeans. You just bought some. I did, yeah, and I would like to say that what, uh, gene manufacturers think is baggy on my butt is still tight on the butt and baggy on the legs. So I mean they look like normal genes with straight legs got a booty.
Jess: 5:12
That's one thing. You could look in the mirror and say you like about yourself, right it is. So a couple of things about affirmations. There are general affirmations that are really just focused on saying something good about yourself, whether or not you believe it's true. Right, it's just positive affirmations. But the kind of affirmations that we're going to be focusing on in this episode are self affirmations, which are a positive, facing statement about yourself that are related to a core value. I'm a kind person. I know how to be a good friend, like values affirmations. It's reflecting on an important value and how you are presenting that Follow something called the self-affirmation theory, which proposes that individuals can cope with threats to our self-image by reflecting on important values or affirmations unrelated to the threat.
Jess: 6:00
So, in context of, like comparing yourself to images on social media, reflecting on and affirming a value unrelated to your appearance can help you cope with a threat of physical appearance comparison. So a couple of things here. The ideal, if you will, is using values based comparison. So if you are unfamiliar with how to pick your values or don't know what your own values are, episode nine of Sturdy Girl is all about choosing your core values.
Jess: 6:28
There is a download PDF that you can use for kind of funneling down. There's like a list of a hundred and you can narrow them down to like 10 and then five and then hopefully one to three and using those. But there's also, I'm going to say there's nothing wrong with choosing affirmations that are based on your appearance, if that is a place to start, but the most beneficial types of affirmations are based on our values. That is our basis for affirmations. I wanted to talk a little bit about the research on benefits of these values-based affirmations, and then we have a little homework for how to improve it fun homework though yes, fun homework, absolutely.
Jess: 7:04
I yes, fun homework, absolutely. I assign my clients homework, if you will, most every week, and so it's like, basically, what's our focus for the week? Yeah, but that's how I always end up, like when I'm sending voice memos. I'm like, okay, your homework for the week and so, like your focus, to give like here's one little thing you're working on this week.
Megan: 7:18
Yeah, as someone who's back in school right now, the word homework is triggering I mean in a fun way.
Jess: 7:23
I actually miss school, so maybe that's why I thought I did homework you don't.
Megan: 7:28
Um, you're almost done, though I actually I really enjoyed learning stuff, so I shouldn't say that I just don't like classes, I like learning, but the structure yeah, my adhd comes out a little too much.
Jess: 7:38
Okay, that's fair so in looking at all the research that we dug up for this episode on affirmations, I'm trying to figure out how I want to condense all this down in a way that keeps your guys' listening audience. You know like, keep your interest here Because there are studies that look at like people who have daily affirmation practice exercise more compared to a control group. You have one study that told participants the benefits of fruits and vegetables after they'd written out their personal values-based affirmations and over the course of the next week the group that had the affirmations ate five and a half more servings of plants than the control group. Like these are small and singular studies, but they're definitely onto something here.
Jess: 8:17
And then you look at like affirmations can activate the reward system in your brain. It can influence how you experience emotional pain, can help reduce anxiety and negative thoughts, while also, like that reward pathway as well, can have negative effects. So if you're telling yourself these affirmations, it can lead to that cognitive dissonance piece If you don't believe what you're saying. But it's activating that reward part of your brain. It's like reading a self-help book you know they talk about. Like you can read a self-help book, it activates the reward part of your brain and you're like, oh yeah, it's like achieving the goal without doing the work, yeah, and then you don't actually do the work. So that's one potential negative.
Jess: 8:53
It can also lead to a fixed mindset because of this right, you're not doing the work. You're like I'm affirming that I am this like active outgoing person who eats their fruits and vegetables. I'm affirming that I'm this beautiful person who is kind or whatever, and then you don't put in the work to continue being that kind, good person. And so that's pros and cons of it activating that right. But then also there was one study done about six years ago that found that affirming yourself again those values-based, not appearance-based, can help you cope with uncertainty. It also can help improve self-worth. Self-affirmations are more effective when they're future-oriented. But this coping with uncertainty is enhancing the processing of uncertain situation instead of avoiding it. So when we talk about growth mindset, it's embracing challenges. That's exactly what these affirmations if you can remind yourself that you are a resilient person, remind yourself of the hard things you've been through and affirm those pieces.
Megan: 9:50
It helps you to deal with challenges as they come up. It reminds me of CBT cognitive behavioral therapy where kind of trying to challenge your thoughts and change the way that you're thinking about something and then that can create like a positive outcome with yourself. Like for me, it's anxiety seeing scenarios that are spiraling and don't actually cause problems for me, but they're like the unrealistic thoughts that you have and then challenging that and being like okay, I am a good person, I am like this, I can handle these things, I am strong. This is what's happened in the past, so this is how I've adjusted. It's reducing anxiety, yeah, especially if I would say for like I like how it says, like future oriented, because I feel like that does help me, because a lot of anxiety is about what's going to happen that's exactly it, 100.
Jess: 10:33
But that is looking at like basic foundations of cognitive behavioral therapy. Affirmations are one big part of it. I think, too, having this conversation is so important in the context of so much social media promotion of affirmations is in the woo, woo sense, and so this is saying, like how do we build that tool belt and add another tool in that tool belt of ways that you can deal with anxiety, deal with uncertainty whether that's about generalized anxiety or is that anxiety about your body or about social situations or those things and we have those affirmations that we can draw on to remind ourselves. I believe this about myself and reaffirm it Exactly, and that's to just touching on. We keep relating affirmations to like mirror and mirror self talk, if you will. There really is a lot of power that people that looking in the mirror have, and so you see a lot of times who will use sticky notes or write in their mirrors for those affirmations to remind themselves, that negative self-talk. And so a couple of things I wanted to say about looking in the mirror. Preface to this if you are someone who actively has body dysmorphic disorder, is working with a therapist on certain body image issues, know that you're going to listen to your therapist before you ever listen to any recommendations or discussions that we have on here.
Jess: 11:46
But one of the things that has been suggested to avoid body image spirals is to not look in the mirror as much. And now they talk specifically about, like, reducing body checking, which is a whole thing in and of itself. But I want to challenge that. What if looking in the mirror is the problem? What if the mirror is the problem?
Jess: 12:02
What if it's your thoughts about the mirror? What if it's your body image? Like? It's not the mirror itself, it's not looking in the mirror, because what we see when we look in the mirror is clouded by our mood, our current level of self-esteem, our insecurities, our perceived flaws, our experiences, the influences of our peers, what we've been seeing recently on social media. We cannot see ourselves objectively. We're too in it. We can't avoid looking at our reflection forever.
Jess: 12:27
So what if we challenge those thoughts? What if we simply acknowledge them as existing? Those thoughts don't have to mean anything unless we give them the power to mean something. When you look in the mirror, I mean, I'm just thinking from, like recent personal experience, you know, putting on the summer clothes after wearing nothing but puffy coats and boots and pants for six plus months and having much paler skin than I remember having, you know, and you're like putting on the swimsuit, putting on the shorts, and suddenly it's like, oh man, I don't remember my stomach looking like this as much, or this like swimsuit fitting this way, or you know, gosh, I remember like my arms being this hairy, Okay.
Megan: 13:03
Sorry. That one kind of made me laugh because I feel like I go through that every summer. Where I'm like I have my arms always been this dark. It's a thing.
Jess: 13:11
But then it's asking yourself does this even matter? And sure, okay, yes, I do have hairy arms. Yes, my boobs are lopsided. No, I don't have a flat stomach. What power am I giving this? And just having that question of, okay, is my body holding me back from living the life I want? No, I don't necessarily need to give this power. So it's acknowledging those thoughts, asking yourself if they're true, and then maybe you do have those affirmations to back it up. What affirmations have I been using recently to remind myself of being a good human? What can I bring into this when I'm body checking and looking in the mirror?
Jess: 13:41
The other thing, too, about mirrors as well, is it can end up being a piece of self-objectification. And, without going too deep on, this media really has us our bodies have been objectified. Yeah, incessantly we're seeing our bodies as object rather than us being valued as a human, no matter what we look like, or like seeing each separate part as needing to be improved, like, oh, my arms, my legs, my stomach, my whatever, right. And we're breaking it up by piece and part, and so we're putting so much value into our looks. So this calls attention to like the work we can do on placing our value on who we are as a human and moving away from how much worth goes into our appearance.
Megan: 14:18
Yeah, it's just moving it more like internal to ourself yeah, absolutely.
Jess: 14:22
And I mean, if, for listeners who've been part of Sturdy Girl for any length of time know that we have so many episodes on doing that internal work, yeah, anyway, okay, I that internal work, yeah, Anyway, okay. I feel like we've gone pretty well into research, pretty well into the mirror talk, self talk, those kinds of things, what you can do looking in the mirror. But let's talk about our homework. If you want to call it homework, how about strategies?
Megan: 14:41
Homework is fine. It's fun homework. Things that can help you yes.
Jess: 14:46
Should you choose to take action. I think that's one thing that's hard, as I know as a podcast listener myself, is there will be suggestions or actions, and so often I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna listen first and then maybe I'll do it later. Yeah, and then I forget what podcast I was listening to and they were recommending something. Okay, I want you to get out a piece of paper and I want you to write these things down, and I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do it later. The host was like okay, no, seriously, do it right pause on this freaking podcast.
Jess: 15:13
Get out your piece of paper and your pen or your notes up on your phone, I don't care. Pull over the car if you're driving Like. I want you to do this because it's worth it and I was like called out. So, anyways, if you are listening, do pause, pull out your pen and paper. It is worth it. So we're going to create a list of affirmations. That's your homework and it's listing 10 things that you are based on your values.
Jess: 15:43
Again, we love values based affirmations, but in this list, in a starting point, can you think about what makes you feel good, what makes you feel fierce right now, what makes you feel powerful in your body, in your being, in yourself? Again, if we're struggling on the values piece, go back and listen to episode nine. Ideally, we focus on things other than your appearance, but really trying to channel the good feels here, like if you have a favorite outfit that makes you feel good, if you have an accessory or a body part that makes you feel good, put it down. It's okay.
Jess: 16:10
When we're creating this list of affirmations like I'm a great friend, I'm a phenomenal cookie baker, I'm a voracious and dedicated reader, maybe you're a good mom, maybe you love the ability to make people laugh. You love the way that your niece lights up when you walk into the room because she knows you're going to spend four hours on the trampoline with her later. What is it Because? I mean, maybe it does come down to loving the way that your ass looks on the new Costco joggers you bought Right, and that's okay. It is a starting place.
Megan: 16:36
Yeah, I agree, I think it's so important to really focus on the internal ones, kind of, when you're starting out. I think that it is easier to start at a point where you can be like I like how funny I am, or I like that I bring people joy, or I like that I'm an honest person or something like that you know, and then kind of go from there. For me personally, if sometimes I try and start with like appearance, then it's like then I have a hard time transitioning into this.
Jess: 17:04
Yeah, for sure, and I like the focus on the internal first versus external, like appearance based. But just saying from a starting point maybe someone starts out and they're like I feel really good when I curl my hair this way. Oh yeah, absolutely Okay. I'm going to start with that. My affirmation is when I do my makeup this way and I perfected my cat eye I feel really freaking good about myself.
Megan: 17:26
When my eyebrows actually match, I feel very good.
Jess: 17:28
Same, it's a place to start, because we take this list of 10 and then the next step in this is brainstorming the why. Why are these things important to you? I am a great friend because I love my sense of humor, because I'm able to bring joy and levity to my life and others like. Having that why behind it increases the power that it's going to have for you and for your self-worth, for your body image for your wellbeing.
Megan: 17:59
It's like giving substance to a statement that you're making.
Jess: 18:02
Exactly, and so that's again when we go back to saying like, hey, these internal things are going to mean more than the external. When you start to ask yourself why I like I feel really good when I do my makeup this way, here's my affirmation. Well, why? Maybe it's I've taken the time to perform an act of self-care and that reminds myself that I am worthy. That's why, right, but sometimes like appearance-based things, if you're just like I look in the mirror and I'm like I've got a really nice ass, and that's your affirmation. Well, the why underneath it? All those squats, there you go, I put in the work, and that's your affirmation. Well, the why underneath it? All those squats, there you go, I put in the work, and that can mean something. But if you don't have a why underneath it, then it's just a superficial level thing, exactly.
Jess: 18:41
So, before going next step, I feel like there's probably some listeners going like Jess, I don't like anything about me. So I challenge you to ask someone that you care about or that cares about you your best friend, your partner, someone you trust. Have them help you brainstorm. They are going to have so many nice things to say about you and that can get you to start thinking. Okay, this is how other people see me, because sometimes we're so deep inside our own heads that it's hard to see any of those positive things, and that can help us start thinking. And if you hesitate to ask someone, think about what they might say about you. Think about the kind things that they might say and that might help you start thinking, coming up with ideas. Once you have this list, once we've gotten the why underneath there, we're going to revisit it, because there'd be no point in making this list if we're just going to write it down once and walk away.
Jess: 19:27
Yeah, affirmations don't work if you don't put in the work Exactly. It's not woo, woo, it's not like oh, my gosh, I don't know, it's probably been about a decade ago, when everything was about like manifesting manifestation for your best life. I get it If you sit down to manifest and like think about what you want out of your life. It helps you to work towards taking action. You can't just woo yourself and do improved living conditions. We got to take action. We have to repeat the affirmations regularly and revisit them. I mean daily is the ideal you know a lot of people talk about like their morning routines, and they start the day with their daily affirmations. If that works for you, great. If it's before bed, great. I would just say at least like three or four times a week where you're revisiting these, because the cool thing is you're going to revise these.
Jess: 20:09
The more you think about reminding yourself what is good and the affirmations for what you like about yourself, the more that you're going to evolve and change. And then suddenly you don't have as many appearance based things. You have more values based things you start to think more about am I living according to my values? Well, shit, maybe I'm not, and so you're revising. And that's the cool thing about being human is we change and our values change. I think that's awesome, but our big goal here is finding statements that we actually believe right now, reminding ourselves of them regularly. I keep adding to them and refining them. What do you like about yourself right now, in this moment? And don't be afraid to brag on yourself. I think that's one thing too. When I was writing this episode and I was thinking about how many people would struggle to come up with positive things about themselves, because we, as a society, there's so much there about like, don't brag about yourself, and the hesitation towards like, being confident, talking unapologetically about yourself in a positive way.
Megan: 21:04
And as someone who has very, very self deprecating humor, it can be very hard because you you try and walk that balance of like. I don't want to sound cocky, but I also got. I got to knock myself down a little bit to like so other people can feel relatable and not threatened.
Jess: 21:17
I'm humble, yeah, but at the same time I'm humble. I need to remind myself that I'm worthy and that I am a really good baker. I'm not. I'll share my cookies with you always.
Megan: 21:29
My baking is laughable.
Jess: 21:32
But these affirmations, I mean a cool thing. You think about beliefs. They say that beliefs are a thought you think over and, over and over again until you believe it to be true. So when you're working on these affirmations, and they're things you believe right now, the more you're saying them, the better you believe them. You can impact your own belief systems through these things.
Megan: 21:49
And the more that you believe them to, the more it's going to like spawn other things that you're thinking of, even things that are going to go off of those current core values or current beliefs that you have about yourself. Yeah, absolutely so. Just grows on there.
Jess: 22:01
So, megan, do you have any affirmations that you use and want to share, or anything that you think on the regular to remind yourself.
Megan: 22:09
Yeah, I would say kind of one thing that I've been that I did struggle with recently, like I was going back to school, and I say that very loosely, it's not like school school, it's a certification program, still school. So I got to sit through class, take tests, yeah. But I feel like I struggled a lot in the beginning because I, as I progress in my job, I think things are changing and I'm getting like more responsibility and a higher title and you can relate. You just still feel like a child half the time and you're like I'm not smart enough to do this, I don't know what I'm doing, and so it's like that, like repeating those affirmations back to yourself, like I am very intuitive, I'm a really good learner, I can do these things, I am good enough to have these responsibilities. So I think it's a little different, but I feel like it's still affirmations on myself.
Jess: 22:51
And the things that you do actually believe. Yeah, you just have to remind yourself, because you get sucked into that imposter syndrome. Yes, who am I to be here right now? Exactly what am I doing? Yes, yeah, I like that a lot, because then that relates back to where we were talking about you using affirmations within, like cognitive behavioral therapy, and where that's based and I really like that.
Megan: 23:12
I'm like your CBT master. We have a.
Jess: 23:14
it's like a card deck of CBT activities and stuff that we've used.
Megan: 23:18
I highly recommend, if you struggle with anxious thoughts and stuff like that, like really get a workbook. It's not just about a book that you're reading and you're like, okay, I understand how to do this now Like workbooks are where it's at, because then it makes you actually do the steps in re breaking down your thought patterns. Yep.
Jess: 23:37
Well, it's like we said earlier with some of the research on affirmations, with activating the rewards part of your brain when you read self-help books. You can read it and you're like oh yeah, I understand, I understand.
Megan: 23:47
That's why I'm like that Okay, goodbye If you don't take action on it.
Jess: 23:50
How's anything going to change? Yeah, exactly, I think. For me, really, the only affirmation that I have used consistently in recent times is values-based. So one of two main core values this year, because I try to do like a big core value re-evaluation, end of year reflection, and it's usually like are these core values still working for me? Are these still? They still align with your beliefs? Are they still the most important things to me?
Jess: 24:14
And one of mine for for 2024 is fun, and I know that sounds like kind of a silly core value, but where I work full-time, I coach and then we have our podcast and having all of these serious business things and very structured responsibilities, it's hard to remind myself that I'm actually a really fun human and I really delight in being spontaneous and I do believe I am fun, but sometimes I forget that I'm fun Exactly, if that makes sense. No, it does, because then I'm reading books on confidence, I'm reading books on body image I love to read but then suddenly I'm viewing that as like a job too. Yeah, hey, I'm actually really fun.
Megan: 24:52
I'm really funny, I promise.
Jess: 24:54
But yeah, sometimes I have to remind myself of that and so that that's my affirmation of like I am a fun person. And then it starts the mental process of okay, what have I done? That's fun or silly or whatever. I mean this is really low hanging fruit. But having random ass dance parties in my house, I was like they're terrible, but that's been my main thing. So when we talk about these affirmations, like it doesn't have to be super elaborate and I love low hanging fruit.
Megan: 25:20
Are you kidding me?
Jess: 25:20
Am I fed? Am I watered yeah?
Megan: 25:23
Am I a houseplant? Did I work all my hours at work today? Yes, good job.
Jess: 25:28
Gold star houseplant. Did I work all my hours at work today? Yes, Good job, Gold star. So wrapping up affirmations are another tool in our tool belt or toolbox whatever you've got carrying a healthy body image. In order to live the sturdy girl summer, which is our ultimate goal here, we have to practice how we talk to ourselves and what we say when we look in the mirror. We want you out there, living bigger, being present and not worrying so much about your freaking meat sack. For affirmations to have a positive impact, we have to believe them. So start with something you like about yourself right now and then build from there Bonus points if it's related to one of your core values, right. So we've got where we're starting.
Jess: 26:01
And then the end part of your homework is we would love to hear from you. What are your affirmations at work. Have you made that list of 10? We want to hear it. Reach out to us on Instagram at sturdygirl underscore, or we have this cool new feature in the show notes. There should be a hyperlink for send us a text message, Use that. Send us your list of 10. We'd love to see it. And then, finally, unrelated to affirmations, but related to Sturdy Girl Summer the end of every summer month. So June, July and August, we will be giving away Sturdy Girl Summer merch for the people who tag us on Instagram. We're trying to make this fun. We're trying to see how you're living big this summer, how you are celebrating yourselves, regardless of your appearance. But that's it, friends. Have fun with affirmations and we will catch you next Friday for another episode. Bye.