Affirmations Healing Effects

I believe in the healing effects of affirmations and healing arts. But I always like to read about studies that support my belief (don't we all); it validates something that I have proven to myself, and its just plain fasinating to read about the powers of our own minds.

Recently I read an interesting article entitled "Reflecting on Personal Values Protects From Effects of Stress", published by UCLA's online newletter News about the College.

UCLA did a study on the effects of affirmations on stress that confirms that affirmations do have a postive effect. In the article mentioned above, Shelley Taylor, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology, and an expert in the field of stress and health, says that "Self-affirmations can be a very good stress-combater, especially under conditions of chronic stress. It's helpful to remind yourself you're a good person with talents, and remind yourself what is important to you; that can be hard to do when you're going through something that's really awful."

In the study, 80 undergraduates were told to give five-minute speeches about job qualifications in front of evaluators. Afterwards, they were given a mathmatical exercise. Before their speech, one group was told to reflect on values they identified as meaningful to them. The other group was told to identify values they did not consider important. They were all tested for levels of cortisol (a hormone released during stressful events and that can lead to cognitive impairment and increase risk of disease) before and after their speechs.

The group that focused on value affirmations before their speech had lower levels of cortisol than the group that identified non-meaningful value affirmations.

"It's remarkable that such a brief, subtle value affirmation has the ability to mute cortisol responses and serve as a buffer against stress," said David Creswell, a UCLA psychology graduate student and the study's lead author.

According to the article, Crewell believes that value affirmations also help people deal with chronic stress such as life theatening illnesses, death of a loved one, and divorce.

"This study provides evidence for a novel, but effective method to combat stress, showing that thinking or potentially writing about important values can be stress-reducing and health enhancing," Creswell said.

To read the full article ("Reflecting on Personal Values Protects From Effects of Stress" published by UCLA's onlline newletter News about the College, November 8, 2005.) see: http://www.college.ucla.edu/news/05/shelleytaylorvaluesstress.html.

by Catherine Whipple