By repeating positive affirmations, you can manage stress in a healthy way. When you need some serious stress relief, turn to these affirmations. They'll help you believe in the magic and possibility of today. And in your own potential to change (that's everything).

“We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. We can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in one day.” - Gayle Forman

The words you speak to yourself each day become the beliefs you color your experiences with. The good news is that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking, and a thought can be changed.

This is why repeating positive affirmations — like, “Actually, I can” or “Good things are coming my way” — can have such a tremendous impact on your life. When you make it a habit to reach for higher thoughts, you pave new pathways in your brain and it becomes easier to reach for positive thoughts in times of stress.

15 Positive Affirmations for Stress Relief

1. I can move in a different direction. Right now, the best way to move away from something negative is to move toward something positive. I can do that.

2. There’s an option to love here. There’s an opportunity that I just need to find. What’s the most loving thing I can do right now? I can do that.

3. My true purpose has no time limit and no deadline. Nothing about my present circumstances can prevent me from making progress, one step at a time.

4. The joy I see in others is possible in me, too. Success that is outside myself is not evidence that I am losing, but proof that it’s possible for me, too. Supporting another’s success or happiness will never damper mine. I can try that.

5. Beautiful things emerge from the most unlikely places. What looks negative and feels painful on the surface is carving space in my life for something new and beautiful to emerge.

"Anything can happen in one day. I believe in the magic of today."

6. Feeling stuck is a feeling and not a fact. Just as life will inevitably change, I too will grow with the seasons of my life. This feeling and this experience will surely pass.

7. One area of my life may not be flowing, but another area of my life is. This area of my life isn’t flowing right now, but it’s okay, because I know there’s a better way and I can find it. If I look to other areas of my life that are flowing, that have no resistance or fear or distress, I can extend that freedom and get unstuck.

8. I believe in my freedom. I believe I’m ready to release the resistance–to love, to peace, to joy, to anything I want–and I will be healed. The freedom from resistance is standing in front of me now. I’m ready to acknowledge it and to walk through it, unstained and one step closer to my truth. Freedom is truth. Resistance is just how I remember this truth again.

9. I’m willing to change how I’m experiencing my life. I’m ready for everything to begin to change. And so the change has begun.

10. I am the painter, but I am not the manager. I paint the picture that is my reality. I am the master of the world I see, but I am co-creating with the universe. The way I take control is to release control. I am not the manager. I am the painter.

It's such a relief to know that you don't need to be in control of how everything plays out.

11. My appreciation can really turn things around. I know it’s difficult to feel grateful right now, and it’s okay that I feel this way. I just know I can turn this all around if I try to be grateful for one tiny thing at a time. I can do that.

12. I can reach for a higher thought, and it doesn’t have to be the highest thought. If I experience depression or powerlessness, I can reach for frustration or pessimism, and those are higher thoughts on the emotional scale. I don’t have to reach too far right now. If I reach for just one higher thought, that’s enough. I can do that.

13. When everything falls apart, I have an opportunity to rebuild. This gives me the opportunity to witness all the resistance I carry against love. In the witnessing of that resistance, I can change my patterns. I can trust that this is shaking up my world in order to drop something good in my life. I trust it.

14. Everything is happening around me. Everything is happening for me. I am being taught and I am unlearning anything that keeps me from love and peace and joy. I am learning how to return to who I really am. I am truly taken care of. I am okay.

15. In this, and with this, there is something better. Something better is going to happen–it’s in the process of happening–only by me going through this. When something doesn’t happen exactly as I want, I know it’s a detour in a different and better direction. That’s what this is.

. . .

Tell me:

Which of these affirmations is your favorite?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to know!

With love,

Jen

P.S. Want an affirmation for every day of the year? Get my book Morning Affirmations for light when you need it most. Get my book Sleep Affirmations to fall asleep knowing all really is well. You’ll feel… better.