We’ve all come across affirmations —
“I am enough.”
“I choose peace.”
“I create my own reality.”
They’re simple, powerful phrases meant to guide our mindset.
But let’s be honest: sometimes they feel like words just floating in the air.
What if you could make them land?
What if your affirmations weren’t just something you said — but something you saw, felt, and built?
That’s where sketchnotes come in.
Are you ready?
👋 Hello visual learners, I’m Kumar and welcome to my weekly newsletter.
Each week I share Sketchnote(s) on product, leadership, personal growth, and anything that helps you get started on Sketchnoting.
2 weeks back in a weekly warmup session I conducted an activity of sketchnoting affirmation.
This article is the outcome of that activity.
🧠 Why Affirmations Work (and Why They Sometimes Don’t)
Affirmations work by rewiring your mental patterns — a kind of self-authored belief shift. But here’s the catch: your brain doesn’t believe what you don’t emotionally connect with. Reading a line passively won’t move the needle.
But writing it down, drawing it, surrounding it with color, emotion, and visuals?
That’s where it comes alive.
✏️ How Sketchnotes Make Affirmations Better
They slow you down.
You spend time with the words. You reflect while you draw.
They engage your senses.
Pen pressure, color choice, the curve of each letter — it becomes a felt experience.
They create visual anchors.
Your affirmation isn’t just a thought — it’s a shape, a color, a layout. You remember it.
They become your voice.
When you draw your affirmation, you personalize it. You make it yours — messy lines, awkward doodles and all.
🌀 Let me show you how
First let’s understand the construct of any affirmation
Who is I?
What is the time you are affirming about? It will always be in future but attaching month+year will make it tangible.
What is the feeling/emotion attached to that affirmation? How do you want to feel on achieving it?
What is the goal that you want to achieve?
With these different parts it’s becomes easy to visualize each of them.
Break down the problem in smaller parts and address them individually.
🏋🏼♀️ Now let’s put it to work
I start by writing the affirmtion. Now this affirmation is about myself.
So I either draw my body figure or sketch a stick figure and write my name below it. Don’t forget to embelish the name to make it prominent.
Add a month+year that you would like the affirmation to come true or realize it.
And then visualize the emotion, expression, object, action. Finding it difficult to visualize? Write it and put a speech bubble around it.
This very act of breaking down affirmation, visualizing yourself with name, banner, stick figure, and emphasizing the action/expression/object will ingrain it in your brain.
I am working to improve my speech and my verbal presentation skills. Voice has a key role to play when talking. So I affirm everyday about having a confident speech and being aware of the room before what I say.
My affirmation - I am confident about my speech infront of people.
And here’s how I tried to sketchnote it.
As you can see below I also went ahead and visualize the audience and how I feel about myself when speaking.
🌀 Your Turn
What’s one affirmation you want to sketch into your life this week?
Prompt:
“Visualize one affirmation you want to carry with you today.”
And if your pen wobbles, or the drawing looks awkward?
Perfect. That means it’s yours.
With intention,
Kumar
Sketchnoting my way through the mess, one block at a time
Thank you for reading Letsketchin. 🥧
