How Affirmation Cards Can Boost Your Mental Health in 2021

It’s no secret that the past year has been a whirlwind of anxieties and challenges. Stories of rising mental ill health and isolation during coronavirus lockdown have been rife. It’s completely natural to feel anxiety, fear and depression during a global lockdown.

If negative thoughts are taking over your life, it’s important to seek help from local services. During your day to day life, affirmation cards can help boost your mental health in 2021.

Why Affirmation Cards Should Be Your Key Mindfulness Exercise in 2021

Mindfulness is a well known tool for supporting mental health. Many are still not aware of the myriad of ways mindfulness can be used. Even if you’ve found mindful breathing unhelpful, there are so many other techniques to try. 

Whilst lockdown has provided many of us with more free time to spend, this isn’t always the benefit it seems. More time at home can mean more time looking at toxic social media feeds, binge-watching TV boxsets, and becoming consumed with our personal stresses. Mindfulness is more important than ever to boost your mental health in 2021. 

Affirmation cards can give you a springboard for mindfulness. Select an affirmation card, and read the message carefully. For 5, 15 or 30 minutes - whatever you can spare - give yourself time to connect mindfully with your affirmation. If your affirmation focuses on completing goals, choose a practical task - such as washing up or making the bed - and pay close attention to the physical sensations as you work through it. If the affirmation is about letting go, sit quietly and imagine your fears and difficulties being pulled physically away from you. 

How to Use Affirmation Cards For a Mental Health Boost in Lockdown

Although lockdown keeps us safe, it can bring its own anxieties. For many of us, not being able to meet our friends and family, or continue with our outdoor routines, has been a real setback. Isolation and negative thinking patterns can easily take over when we’re stuck inside, away from our usual routines. 

Lockdown is a good time for self-reflection. To boost your mental health in 2021, look through your affirmation cards, and choose an affirmation to integrate into your life during lockdown. 

If your affirmation relates to self-acceptance, think about the aspects of yourself that you like the most, and consider how you can develop these aspects during lockdown. In a Zoom or Skype call, ask friends and family to tell you their favourite memories with you. Is there any overlap between your perception of yourself and theirs? Use their words to develop a positive mood board about yourself. Use affirmations with your support network to feel closer to them despite the physical distance.

Using Affirmation Cards for Anxiety in 2021

For people with anxiety, lockdown can be an especially difficult time. Suddenly, opportunities to combat your fears and boost your mental health in 2021 have been knocked away. How can you work through social anxiety without seeing people? Or overcome panic attacks without going outside? Fears about the virus can also heighten your anxiety, making it harder to leave your home for essential journeys.

Affirmation cards can give you words of encouragement wherever you go. Strong words of guidance can help you to continue your life during lockdown. Even from within your home, you can think carefully about the future, and how you plan to work on your anxiety. If your affirmation is about self-acceptance, work towards accepting your anxieties as a part of you - don’t guilt yourself for feelings of anxiety. If your affirmation is about letting go, choose one fear you want to overcome, and set out a plan of action.

Affirmation cards cannot replace therapy, but they can be a tool for motivation to boost your mental health in 2021. During these unprecedented times, it is very natural to experience fear and anxiety. Finding ways to work through your fears during lockdown can be challenging. Affirmation cards prompt new ways of looking at your life and mental wellbeing, bringing a huge boost to your mental health in 2021.