Nobody likes to feel anxious, and feeling anxious about our health can lead to a vicious cycle by manifesting as physical symptoms and increasing further anxiety as a result. This can be seriously debilitating if left unmanaged.
Affirmations for health anxiety are a great way to break this cycle of catastrophic thinking and reassure you that everything will be ok in times when you’re assuming the worst.
This can be a serious relief in times when you’re stuck in a health anxiety spiral and struggling to keep anxious thoughts at bay.
I know firsthand the struggles of health anxiety. Having suffered for years of my life with chronic health symptoms, I know how every little bodily change can lead to spiralling thoughts and worries about what’s going on in your body.
For me, every time a new symptom came up or an existing one worsened I fell into the same mistake of searching for answers on the internet and assuming the worst.
And at points in my journey doctors were suspecting that I had all kinds of scary things wrong with me. Then every new test was an opportunity for my anxiety to worsen.
During some of these difficult periods, health anxiety affirmations were my saving grace.
They allowed me to break the health anxiety spiral that I’d gone down and opt for a more optimistic way of thinking, which in turn actually alleviated some of my chronic illness symptoms by calming my nervous system.
I believe that health anxiety affirmations should be a tool in everyone’s toolkit, whether you suffer from chronic illness, have diagnosed hypochondria, or are even just nervous about routine doctor’s tests.
So in this post, I’m sharing some of my favourite grounding mantras for health anxiety and how they can help you manage your health worries.
This post may contain affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure.
What is health anxiety?
Health anxiety is when you become obsessively worried about your health and may feel the need to constantly check for signs that there is something physically wrong with you.
Health anxiety can be an actual diagnosis, sometimes split into the subtypes Somatic Symptom Disorder (when physical symptoms are present) and Illness Anxiety Disorder (sometimes referred to as hypochondria).
But it can also be something that we all experience to some degree in our lifetimes depending on what we’re going through (like my chronic illness diagnosis, for example).
And in some situations of course some level of concern over our health is natural, for example when a virus is spreading, and any serious physical symptoms should never be ignored.
However, if this concern starts to turn into unnecessary anxiety and is affecting your mental health and wellbeing then this is definitely something to be mindful of, even if it doesn’t meet official diagnostic criteria for health anxiety.
How can positive affirmations for health anxiety help?
So with that being said, how can positive affirmations for health anxiety help in times when anxiety about our health is heightened?
Well, because health anxiety is very much based around your thought processes, positive affirmations are a great way to help you reframe these worrying thoughts and switch to a more positive or optimistic state of mind.
This can work on the basis of habit interruption, where we stop our anxious thoughts in their tracks before they get out of hand, and neuroplasticity, ie. changing the way our brain works, to decrease health anxiety.
While using health anxiety affirmations may not always give you instantaneous results, the more you use positive affirmations for health anxiety the more you’ll start to strengthen those positive neural pathways in your brain.
Doing this can help you develop a more positive state of mind over time and relieve some of your health related anxieties.
Disclaimer: positive affirmations aren’t a replacement for professional help, but they can be an effective self-help tool alongside professional advice and/or therapy.
How to use health anxiety affirmations
One of my favourite things about affirmations in general is that they’re so easy to incorporate into your life.
Follow these easy steps to use affirmations to relieve your worries about health:
1. Keep your favourite health anxiety affirmations to hand
Having your favourite health anxiety affirmations easily accessible is the best way to ensure that they’re always available as a tool in times of need.
That means you can easily use them when you’re waiting for doctor’s appointment, when a new symptom appears, or when your health anxiety spikes out of nowhere.
You can write them in the notes app of your phone, save them as your screensaver or write them in your journal for easy access.
In fact, I’ve created some printable health anxiety affirmation cards that you can even keep in your purse or wallet for times of need. You can find them at the bottom of this post.
2. Feel into your affirmations
How you use affirmations is up to you, but many people like to either write them in a journal or say them aloud in the mirror.
And if you need to practice them more discreetly, you can simply repeat the words in your head.
Which method you choose to practice affirmations is less important than it is to feel into your affirmations.
And by that I mean you need to connect to the words that you’re saying to fully feel and embody it as if it were true. This is how you are going to bring some ease to your health anxiety and experience long term benefits from your affirmations.
3. Practice them regularly
For the most effective results, you should practice these affirmations daily.
The reason being is that neuroplasticity works on the basis of repetition. So the more often you practice your health anxiety affirmations, the calmer you will feel in regards to your health.
At first it is also a good idea to practice your affirmations in times when you anticipate you might need them, such as while waiting for a doctors appointment, even if you don’t feel anxiety on that occasion. The idea being that this can help you create positive connections that will guard against anxiety in the future.
Over time you will need your health anxiety affirmations less and less because you will naturally be able to tune into those feelings of calm and reassurance.
And the good news is that if you do have a rise in health anxiety for whatever reason, your affirmations will always be there in your toolkit to reach for if you need them.
20 positive affirmations for health anxiety
So now that you know the benefits of affirmations for health anxiety and how to use them, let’s look at some of my favourite health anxiety affirmations.
Remember to save your favourites to access them easily (you’ll have the option to get my free printable health anxiety affirmation cards right after this section too).
- I breathe in relaxation, I breathe out tension
- My body is intelligent and it knows how to protect me
- I am safe and well
- I am attracting positive energy into my body
- I am healthy and strong
- My immune system is thriving
- I am destined to live a long and healthy life
- My body has the power to heal itself
- I treat my body with love and respect
- I am resilient to illness and disease
- I recover quickly from illness
- I feel more at ease with every breath I take
- I look forward to my future
- I am filled with peace and gratitude for life
- I am healing more each day
- Everything and everyone is well in my life
- I release worries that do not serve me
- I release any tension that I’m holding in my body
- Anxiety isn’t dangerous, it’s just uncomfortable
- I trust that I am healthy and well
Printable Health Anxiety affirmation cards
If you need these affirmations to hand during times of worry and panic, why not try printing out these health anxiety affirmation cards?
Sign up to get your free affirmation cards for health anxiety!
I hope that these health anxiety affirmations bring you some peace during times of stress and worry.
Let me know how you use these affirmations or if you have any other affirmations for health anxiety that you think should make the list!
Wishing you all the best on your healing journey.
Liked this post on health anxiety affirmations? Check out some of these related posts:
- Dealing with Self Isolation: 15 Self Care Tips for Social Distancing
- Positive Affirmations for Anxiety Disorders
- 84 Best Protection Affirmations for Safety and Grounding
- How to JournalSpeak: Journaling for Chronic Symptoms
And don’t forget to pin this post to access your affirmations easily!
Esther is the founder of Through the Phases, an online space dedicated to balancing personal development and self-care. From her experience living with chronic symptoms, she believes that rest is essential for a sustainable and fulfilling life. She has a degree in Psychology, is yoga teacher trained (200hr), and is currently pursuing a Neuroscience MSc to further study the mind-body connection. Read more about her story here.