Affirmations for OCD recovery

Here is a list of affirmations that I’ve come up with that you can use for your own OCD recovery. As always, when experiencing a mental health condition, seek help from a mental health professional. My posts are based on my own experiences and are meant to serve you as a self-help resource in addition to expert advice.

Before we get into the actual list of affirmations, here are the answers to some frequently-asked questions about affirmations themselves:

What are affirmations useful for?

Affirmations are a desired identity embodiment tool, useful for doing being just this. Through repetition, you become used to “new” (wanted) thinking. Affirmations shine because they dissolve the resistance you may have toward what you desire.

For example, if you have believed for years that you are unworthy of being loved, believing that you are loved may appear to be an impossible feat to accomplish—even listening to the affirmation “I am worthy of being loved” may bring up discomfort within you. As you continue to listen to this affirmation, however, you begin to be okay with the fact that it IS possible that you are worthy of being loved, and that is already a significant accomplishment: you have opened yourself up to the existence of a possibility that you once perceived as non-existent (therefore impossible), and this openness to possibility is what allows its tangibilization (reflection, physical expression).

Once this familiarity has been established, it is easy to begin exercising the new thinking: it no longer feels like you’re pretending to be someone you’re not; instead, it feels normal, it simply feels like who you are. By exercising it, the new thinking predominates over the old thinking. Boom—you now think differently! And thinking differently results in feeling differently, that then results in behaving differently.

Are affirmations actually effective at bringing about a change in someone’s life?

Short answer: yes! Long answer: also yes, but I’ll elaborate. In the previous paragraphs, I’ve explained how and why affirmations work. But the thing to keep in mind is that, in order to be sustained, the wanted thinking pattern must be exercised indefinitely. It’s not about just saying “I am worthy of being loved” out loud ten times in a row while you are alone in your room and then go about your whole week thinking, feeling, and behaving as someone who isn’t worthy of being loved. In this example, do you think replaying that one scenario in your mind where you got broken up with (thinking), settling for a relationship that doesn’t fulfill you (feeling), and mindlessly scrolling your phone to distract yourself from the emptiness (behaving) is reflecting the life of someone who really believes they are worthy of being loved? I’ll let you decide.

However, it’s not black or white: the bridge of incidents unfolds on its own perfect timing (which, following the example, may have you receive the impulse to leave the unfulfilling relationship at a certain date and meet your soulmate a month later) and there is an overlap between thinking-feeling-behaving. I don’t want you to beat yourself up for not being able to bring yourself to do something, but I also expect you to take responsibility over your conscious thinking, since that is the catalyst for affective and behavioral reconfiguration. A life of flowing instead of a life of forcing doesn’t equal to passivity: flowing, in the way I use it, means active surrender, taking inspired action that can sometimes feel scary but that is aligned with your desired thinking.

All of this to say that, for your wanted thinking to remain constant in your life, you must keep it alive by exercising it. Whether you affirm out loud or mentally to yourself, play affirmation audios, or do both, do so as a reminder of who you are. And actually listen, don’t just hear; let the affirmations marinate your being (so that you taste yummier [metaphorically {and literally? 😳🤭}]). BE the affirmations—desired identity embodiment!

How do I use them?

Ooh, this part’s fun! Okay, there are two main ways of incorporating affirmations into your daily life:

Rampages & Subliminals (subtle, practical):

1. Rampages: These are affirmation audios in which you can clearly hear the words spoken. You can either record yourself saying your desired affirmations or you can look up affirmation audios with your desired affirmations on YouTube. Listen to these while doing chores or simple tasks during which dedicated focus is not required. Ideally, listen to them once you wake up and before you fall asleep (increased receptivity).
2. Subliminals: These are affirmation audios in which you cannot or can barely hear the words spoken. Use ones made by another person or make them yourself by lowering the sound of your voice’s audio track and layering it under a song or ambient sounds. Listen to these while doing chores, simple tasks, and even while doing more complex activities (such as exercising and working, given that the audio is not distracting). Ideally, listen to them once you wake up and before you fall asleep (increased receptivity).

Self-repetition (bold, effective):

• You say your affirmations in your mind or out loud. You may dedicate a set amount of time of your day to saying your affirmations, and this may be helpful for those who are beginning their transformation. However, scheduling them in is not necessary. What you do want to do, though, is to get used to incorporating the essence of these affirmations into your inner (with yourself) and outer (with others) dialogue.
• For example, if you’re assuming that you are attractive (you are 😉), you want to get used to and even enjoy looking at yourself in the mirror and complimenting yourself, accepting the compliments of others without downplaying them, and outwardly expressing the attractiveness that you inwardly acknowledge you possess (being assertive is not the same as being arrogant!). You recognize good (God) in yourself, you recognize good (God) in others—and you point it out to them! A compliment has the power to brighten someone’s day. See how this change in yourself also produces a change in others?

Remember: repetition use is key. Eventually, as the content of your affirmations are integrated into your embodied identity, you may find yourself naturally listening to or purposely repeating affirmations less and less: they are now who you are being (thinking, feeling, and behaving). This is normal. Personally, in regard to affirmations, I now mostly listen only to subliminals in the background during certain moments. As part of my daily routine, I sometimes like to have ambient sounds in the background while engaging in a casual task—while at it, as an extra boost, why not throw in subtle reminders of the desired identity I am embodying?

List of affirmations to live an OCD-free life

Finally, here are the affirmations! With much love, I leave these here for you (in no particular order) to use freely so that you may benefit from them as I did. All of these affirmations follow the most effective format: first person and present tense (you may change them to the second person if you personally prefer that format, or you may use both the first- and second-person format). None of these statements include negations (they are affirmations after all), nor do they mention OCD itself: you’re embodying your desired identity, and for this identity, OCD is irrelevant (read my post about the mindset shifts that helped me fully recover from OCD).

Note: These are NOT to be used compulsively! If you find yourself using these from fear instead of from preference, stop using them. These are to be used for cognitive reconfiguration, thinking replacement (conscious thinking), not for thought replacement (unconscious [“intrusive”] thoughts). Click here to learn about the difference between these two.

Affirmations

1. I am free
2. I am safe
3. I am authentic
4. I trust myself
5. I am confident
6. I live my life exactly as I want to live it
7. I feel ease and joy often
8. I am fulfilled in every aspect of my life
9. I feel soul-deep pleasure in my life
10. I am a life alchemist, every “bad” I transmute to good
11. I trust God
12. I know God takes care of me: I propose (place forth), God provides (sees ahead)
13. I allow love, God, to flow freely through me
14. I am fully expressing my soul’s essence through my thinking, feeling, and behaving
15. I feel safe knowing that Oneness is all that is
16. I live a life of flow and allowing
17. I am love—I love and I am loved
18. The author of my life is God and I; my life’s story is one of awe, victory, and expansion
19. I assign meaning, so everything is happening for me
20. I follow my enthusiasm, the God within
21. I am resilient and tenacious
22. I am persistent: bold and dynamic

You propose, place yourself forth into your desired state, and God provides, sees ahead to prepare your dwelling place. It’s a forward movement, upward into everlasting glory.