Affirmations

The key to overcoming Stereotype Threat

May 3, 2015

Affirmations

Wikipedia does a great job summing up what an affirmation is.

"Affirmations in New Thought and New Age terminology refer primarily to the practice of positive thinking and self-empowerment—fostering a belief that "a positive mental attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything." More specifically, an affirmation is a carefully formatted statement that should be repeated to one's self and written down frequently. For an affirmation to be effective, it needs to be present tense, positive, personal and specific"

In our last blog post, we were asked to talk about Stereotype Threat. In this resource, it specifically states that Stereotype Threat can be combatted with positive affirmations.

My Exemplary Father

I am going to take a minute to talk about my father. My father is someone that I deeply love and respect. He is a self-made man that rose out of poverty, worked his way through a bachelor's and a master's degree in a foreign language (my father is from Japan, and attended school in the US), built his business and provided a comfortable life for his family and for those who needed help around him.

I remember a very specific time in my life, in my teenage years, when my father had picked up a book on affirmations. He taught me that positive affirmations had a powerful effect on the mind, and that it is important to be careful about what I say or think. Some of the literature he shared with me that strongly influenced my core beliefs are: As a Man Thinketh, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn. The last book is strongly Christian-influcenced, nonetheless, a collection of powerful anecdotes on the influcence of affirmations.

I also remember walking into the restroom or my father's den to find cards with positive affirmations plastered all over the walls. I remember, in particular, seeing a card that said something like, "I believe in my children and that they would make the right decisions." Over the next decade or so, I noticed a significant change in the way my father interacted with me. Not that my father was ever an unkind man, but his tone seemed kinder and more patient. I can only imagine, being a father to a hormonal and slightly psychotic teeneager (and eventual young adult) was no easy task! I am sure, when your stupid teenager makes bad decisions, it invokes plenty of self-doubt about one's parenting skills. He had to find a way to deal with the challenges of being a parent, and I imagine affirmations were how he got through those years. :) I have tremendous respect towards my dad for all that he accomplished, and I have no doubt the affirmations were part of his success.

Combatting Stereotype Threat with Affirmations

I think this is something I've had to learn to do, from fairly early on, due to the fact that I often found myself so "different" from others. I explained in my previous post that I fit into a collection of minority groups - ethnic, religious, gender and marital status, etc. I still combat the stereotype threat of "a woman ought to be cooperative, friendly, tactfully quiet and walking 3 steps behind a man." I don't live in a world where this concept holds any grounds but it is difficult to un-do generations of religious and cultural teachings. I also combat the "a woman is no good at STEM tasks" stereotype, and more so the insecurity that is a byproduct of this stereotype threat, that I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to, in comparison to the men who seem to "get" these concepts so quickly.

Values

I often have to remind myself that I am not a complete idiot, and that I do have value to add to most situations, faced with a stereotype threat. DBC asked us to pick a value that we felt is representative of ourselves and talk a bit about it. I think responsibility is something that I often try to live up to, though I often give off the "irresponsible" "party girl" vibe to the public due to my years of playing in a rock band. On the contrary, being a band lead and holding down a full-time professional job is not a task for an "irresponsible" person. For a band in a small town, a band lead is tasked with being a band manager, booker, promoter and a do-er of a multitude of other tasks that happen behind the glamours stage/scene. I would like to think that people could count on me to stay on top of important things, always respond to messages and do the right thing in a given situation, professionally or in extracurricular activities. I would show up to work, even if I had stayed up late the night before to close the bar out for the band. I rarely ever left work without completing all the tasks that I was given to do that day. This is a value that I posess that I need to remind myself often of, to combat stereotype threat.

Conclusion

I think affirmations are something that everyone could use to remind themselves of the good values they hold and add to society. It could be about their kindness/compassion/empathy or sense of humor. It could be about their work ethics or ability to appreciate the small things in life. Positive affirmations every day could have a significant impact on both an individual and those around them.