Mantras and Affirmations: How they’re different and when they can help

You will often see the use of affirmations promoted as a popular way of encouraging people to be nicer about themselves or to help them succeed in a particular area of their life. But are they always right for people, and are mantras another way?

Affirmations

In this context, an affirmation is often a positive ‘I’ statement, for example: “I am happy, I am loved, I feel safe”. You may find you only need or want to say the phrase once a day, as part of an intention, though you can say it as many times as you like. 

Many people use affirmations to help them create a vision for the future. They may use their affirmations to help them imagine the life they want to live as if it’s already here, by speaking in the present tense.

These could include:

• I am capable of great things
• In this moment, I have everything I need
• I bring happiness and success towards me
• I deserve to relax
• I give myself permission to rest/prioritise my peace/say yes (or no).

Affirmations can be used with a Mindful Morning routine but also as part of a self-soothing strategy (see video below), perhaps if you’re managing a moment of overwhelm. Saying “I am safe”, or “I am in a safe place” may work to keep our attention focused on the here and now if triggered, to help reduce the intensity of the moment and prevent the onset of ‘fight or flight’, our automatic stress response. You could also try “I am ok/I will be alright” or your own version of that, if they might help. 

Affirmations don’t work for everyone though, especially if the ‘I am’ statement feels unbelievable. 

You can therefore adapt affirmations to sit more comfortably. If, say, you’re not comfortable saying “I am loved” you could change the sentence structure to be aspirational like “May I feel loved”. You could save the image below to your phone for your personal use, if it’s helpful.

Mantras

A mantra, on the other hand, is a word or phrase – even a sound – that you can repeat as many times as feels helpful, and as many times a day as you like. You probably already have a favourite ‘go-to’ phrase when things are difficult, like “It is what it is” or “Don’t worry, be happy”.  One translation of the word ‘mantra’ can mean ‘transporting the mind’ e.g. to a calmer place, though we can also repeat a word or phrase to keep the mind in one place, i.e. in the here and now.

People often think of the word ‘Om’ or ‘Aum’ as a word, when it fact it’s more of a sound. The deep vibrational nature of the Om sound can feel as if it’s having a healing, relaxing effect. In the Buddhist tradition, there are mantras repeated like the one made famous by Tina Turner: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

One of the ways mantras can be beneficial, is as part of your mindfulness or wellness toolkit especially when you’re going in to a tricky situation, by repeating the phrase or word that helps (like “calm, peace, relax”). 

Other examples might include:

• This too shall pass
• Right now, it’s like this
• It’s ok, it’s ok, it’s ok.

Both mantras and affirmations can be useful for promoting our health, happiness and as part of our spiritual development, in the same way as they can be used to help manage difficult moments. You might decide to create some of your own that sit right with you, and practice them regularly so they’re there when you need.

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Delphi is the author of Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal, out now on Amazon and Hive.  You might also like Monday Mojo™ – find out more via the button below.

© Delphi Ellis 2023, updated 2024