These affirmations for LGBTQ+ people can calm your anxiety & grow your self-confidence

The vitriol directed at the LGBTQ+ community lately can feel defeating, and studies have shown that anxiety levels for queer folks have skyrocketed. But psychologists have also developed a simple technique you can do anywhere to calm yourself and grow your feelings of self-worth.

You only need your mobile device or a laptop to feel better using “positive affirmation.”

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“People wish to view themselves as competent, compassionate, and worthy individuals, but their attitudes, intentions,
and behaviors do not always match this ideal,” according to psychological researchers Clayton R. Critcher and David Dunning. “As such, people possess an eclectic toolkit of strategies for defending their positive self-views even when their thoughts, their behavior, or external events call those self-views into question,” they added while discussing their experiments on self-affirmations.

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Instead of meditating on all the bad news and negativity being spewed out about LGBTQ+ people, focus on the positives you already know about yourself. Build yourself up instead of letting others tear you down.

The researchers said people may feel an overwhelming sense of “threatened identity” when confronted with challenging situations or confining stereotypes about how one is “supposed to” act. However, “outside intervention” (like affirming thoughts) can help break the cycle of worrying thoughts so that one’s more capable self can arise.

They cite a study that “gave women a task on which they feared they might confirm the cultural stereotype that women are bad at math. In this circumstance, their (threatened) female identity loomed large in their working self-concepts. However, when reminded of their identity as a college student — an identity associated with competence at math — the salience of their gender identity faded. That is, a threatened identity loomed large in the self-concept until another, positive identity was presented.”

We’ve gathered together a few of the best positive affirmation videos available. Check them out below and if they help you, be sure to share them with a friend who is also struggling.