Episode 04: How To Make Affirmations Work For You
Kaitlyn Kessler
June 15, 2026
You’ve written the affirmations. Said them out loud in front of your mirror every day, written them 555 times in your journal, built a whole morning routine around them…
And yet something about the whole practice has always felt a little off—like you’re trying to convince yourself of something your brain has already decided isn’t true.
In this episode of Rich + Regulated®, we get into the neuroscience of why affirmations so often fall flat and I show you a simple reframe that works with how your brain actually functions so you can learn how to make affirmations work for you AND help you uncover the next aligned steps to take toward your goals and desires.
What We Cover
- Why your brain filters out affirmations it doesn’t recognize as true
- The 11 million bits vs. 50 bits filter: how your brain decides what to notice and why it matters for belief work
- The automatic search function your brain runs every time it hears a question
- How to flip any affirmation in a simple way (and why the difference is everything)
- The journaling prompt formula that gives your brain something it actually wants to answer
- What to do when resistance shows up and your brain refuses to engage
Your Brain Isn’t Broken
If you’ve ever stood in front of your mirror repeating “I am wealthy, I am abundant, I am a millionaire” and felt your brain immediately argue back—that actually makes sense. Your brain is running a constant background check: does this match what I know to be real? Is this part of our belief system? When the answer is no, the statement loses its impact.
Think about it this way: if someone walked up to you and said “did you know the ocean is pink?”—you wouldn’t entertain it. You’d probably think they were out of their mind and move on. That’s your brain being efficient, not broken. The problem is that it applies the same filter to your affirmations. “I am a millionaire,” said a hundred times by someone who doesn’t yet hold that as true, lands the same way. The brain clocks the mismatch and lets it go.
11 Million Bits
Your brain is taking in approximately 11 million bits of information per second. You’re consciously processing around 50. Something has to decide which 50 make the cut—and that filter is heavily influenced by what your brain has been primed to look for.
This is why you buy a new car and suddenly see that car everywhere. They were always there. Your brain just wasn’t flagging them as worth your attention before. This is the part of the reticular activating system that’s actually useful to understand—not as a manifestation mechanism, but as a perception one. What your brain has been trained to look for shapes what you notice.
How To Make Affirmations Work
Here’s where it gets interesting: your brain has what functions like an automatic search function. When it hears a question, it starts looking for an answer. Automatically!! So even if you don’t fully believe the question, it’s still getting more attention than a simple affirmation—and your brain actually starts looking for answers to the questoion.
So “why is it so easy for me to make money?” lands completely differently than “making money is easy.” The question opens a loop your brain actually wants to close and it’ll start looking for potential answers, right away. This is also why this works particularly well for those of us who lean logical, who need the mechanism to make sense before we’ll trust the tool. You’re not being asked to believe something you don’t yet believe. You’re just asking a question and letting your brain do what it naturally does.
The Formula
The tool itself is simple: take whatever you’re working on believing and flip it into a why or how question.
- “I am someone who makes money with ease” becomes “why am I someone who makes money with ease?”
- “My work finds the right people” becomes “how does my work keep finding the right people?”
- “I am abundant” becomes “how did I become so abundant?”
Give your brain a moment to actually answer and it will. It wants to!! The answers that come up are typically PACKED with insights and information. They’ll show you what you already believe is possible, what next steps your brain thinks are worth taking, and where the real work is if there’s resistance underneath.
What To Do When Resistance Shows Up
Sometimes you’ll pose the question and your brain will just… refuse. “I don’t know why money flows easily to me. It doesn’t.” That’s okay. There’s a simple bypass for this moment: ask yourself “if I did know, what would the answer be?” It’s a small trick and it works. The hypothetical removes the pressure of having to believe the answer and just asks your brain to imagine. From there, you get to decide what to do with whatever surfaces.
Reflection Prompts
- Pick one affirmation you’ve been working with that hasn’t quite landed. Flip it into a why or how question and bring it to your journal to write on for 5 minutes. What does your brain offer?
- When you imagine the version of you who already has the thing you want—what do they believe? Can you pose that belief as a question?
I’ve spent over a decade in this online business space, built two multi-six-figure businesses, and coached hundreds of clients—
And I know exactly what it's like to be building something, doing the work, investing in yourself—and still feel like you're not really living up to your own potential. Like there's a version of you and your business that's juuuust there, but something keeps getting in the way.
That's the work I do. At the intersection of identity, embodiment, neuroscience, and money—I help the people who are so good at being in motion actually move more intentionally and sustainably toward what they deeply desire.
If you're curious about how I got here…
I’ve spent over a decade in this online business space, built two multi-six-figure businesses, and coached hundreds of clients—
And I know exactly what it's like to be building something, doing the work, investing in yourself—and still feel like you're not really living up to your own potential. Like there's a version of you and your business that's juuuust there, but something keeps getting in the way.
That's the work I do. At the intersection of identity, embodiment, neuroscience, and money—I help the people who are so good at being in motion actually move more intentionally and sustainably toward what they deeply desire.
If you're curious about how I got here…
