more on affirmations so i was just working with a group today a training group and one of the staff used this great phrase she said affirmations are like hugs with words i thought that was so sweet so i thought it prompted me to talk a little bit more about affirmations and you can check out some of my other videos on affirmations and the technicality pieces of it but i wanted to share with you a couple of ideas one is this is just kind of creative things that i've heard from folks in trainings over time and also one that my child's classroom is doing she has in her classroom there is an affirmation station how does this work it's so sweet she brings home these little scraps of paper that her classmates have written on that say things that they like or appreciate about her that she's a good listener that she's a quiet table mate that she likes harry potter too you know those types of things so it's kind of a fun environment building engagement building thing to have something where there are regular recognitions of the positive traits the strengths the efforts the intentions that people are bringing to the table whether you work directly with clients and you're focused on providing affirmations to them regularly whether you're a supervisor in leadership and you're trying to create an environment where affirmations happen and staff are feeling like they are seen and heard and appreciated for the strengths efforts and intentions that they bring to the work i've also seen an activity done where somebody like in a staff meeting for example where somebody writes their name and then big on the paper and then they pass that around the room so that the other people that work with that staff are writing affirmations on that sheet of paper you know things that they appreciate about that person or things that person does particularly well so some of the things that i've heard over time brainstormed in trainings and whatnot where we can help cultivate and create an environment where affirmations are more regular and probably most importantly about affirmations is this evidence-based piece to them when research is done on the utilization of the ores skills in motivational interviewing the open-ended questions affirmations reflections and summaries the technical skills really used to help guide a conversation in the direction of change when we look at the research around change talk which is when a client is really starting to connect more to their own motivation for change or arguing for change the benefits of change we hear more change talk in response to affirmations than any of the other org skills and so that's a nice little piece to note to self the importance of affirmations when a client or a staff person is hearing an affirmation that they are likely to become more connected to their desires and abilities to change than even any of the other ores skills it's an important piece and it makes sense logically when you break it down and you think yeah if somebody is gonna want to or need to change they're gonna need to be in touch with their inner confidence and abilities in making change and tackling change change is hard and the affirmations help people kind of perk up inside and become more connected to the change abilities that they have within them which helps feed that change process so a couple more thoughts on affirmations would love to hear if you have any fun practices or tips that help you focus on affirmations