“Affirmations are like seed planted in soil. Poor soil, poor growth. Rich soil, abundant growth. The more you choose to think thoughts that make you feel good, the quicker the affirmations work.” – Louise Hay

The quickly growing and changing brain of childhood is the prime time to begin affirmations. As a child’s brain is being wired, planting these positive seeds will, as Louise Hay stated, bring abundant growth. Peggy O’Mara said, “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” The best place to start is to speak affirming words to your children, and eventually these will take root and become what they believe of themselves, but children also need to become comfortable saying positive affirmations to themselves so that, in the absence of a parental voice, they are still wrapped in love.

Affirmations are particularly important for children because how they feel about themselves is how they behave. This is true for everyone actually, but for us parents, this is an easy way to help our children onto the path of positive behavior. The more loved and good they feel, the better they will act, and this results in fewer power struggles and deeper connections in families.

How many of us suffer with a harsh inner critic today? By giving children a positive inner voice now, we can save them the pain of being bullied by “the bully too close to home.” (Stafford) How much of a difference would it have made in our lives as adults if we’d developed the habit of positive self-talk when we were young and it became part of our inner wiring? Learning self-love is harder at 50 than it is at 5. Let’s help them start now!

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