Emily McDonald

And what that means is, you know, neurons that fire together, meaning that you have neurons that are wired into pathways all throughout your brain.

And when these pathways light up or activate together, every time they do that, and when they do that frequently, they become stronger.

And then that can become your more dominant way of thinking and feeling.

And so affirmations actually work to kind of strengthen the pathways that represent maybe that thought or feeling.

And so over time, it could become your dominant way of thinking.

And they also have been shown to activate the reward centers in the brain and boost dopamine as well.

So they can make us feel good.

And dopamine actually drives neuroplasticity as well.

Dopamine drives learning.

So you kind of get this double whammy of boosted dopamine in the moment, feeling good, but then also

you know, driving neuroplasticity to remember it better.

But I think with that being said, it makes it even more important that the affirmations are done the right way.

I get asked all the time, like, oh, I do affirmations and I have these limiting beliefs come up and, you know, my other thoughts pop in and they're like,

But that's not true.

That's wrong.

And if that's happening, then it might actually be working against you.

And I've actually had people that I coach.

Remember, I had this one person.

He had that happen to him where he would practice affirmations.

They just didn't work for him.