Affirmations, those positive statements I chant to myself, are one of my secret pleasures. For several years, my affirmations have included not only my goals—”I practice the piano once a day,” for example—but also statements about my health. A body of experts believe that delivering positive messages to the body can enhance health, including hearing health.
Nonetheless, I recently realized that while my affirmations list includes sinuses, heart, and skin, one of my biggest health issues, my hearing loss, is missing. Perhaps I was silent about my loss because going deaf is one of my inner terrors. So I cajoled myself to create a list of affirmations for hearing health.
I should add that I personally don’t view hearing health affirmations, or any affirmations for that matter, as a replacement for traditional medicine. I still have an otolaryngologist that I see twice a year, and an audiologist whom I try to visit whenever my hearing aids need reprogramming. Nor do I believe that others with hearing loss would simply be cured if they stated affirmations. I simply consider these affirmations as part of the best solution I can provide myself for hearing health.
I try to state my affirmations whenever I’m on a walk. I still find this new set on hearing health difficult to utter: oftentimes when I make these declarations, my my lips feel numb and thick, most likely because I am reversing a decades-long habit of not thinking about my hearing loss at all. Nonetheless, these affirmations for hearing health exude hopefulness:
My ability to hear is stable, even improving.
The fear that haunts me, often late at night when fatigue allows those submerged worries to flare, is that someday I may not be able to hear at all. It’s no secret that as people age, often their hearing worsens. For those of us with hearing loss—I have a high-frequency hearing loss—layering additional loss from old age on top of an existing deficit is frightening. This affirmation for hearing health has the benefit of comforting myself that I will not necessarily be deaf by the time I turn 70.
I hear across a wide range of frequencies, from the lowest note in the bass to the highest note in the treble.
Of course the sounds I most cherish in life are my husband’s and children’s voices, and a close second to that is the piano. I want my body to understand that conversational frequencies are not enough. In order to pursue my passion for classical piano music, I want to hear the piano’s full, luscious range.
The hair cells in my left and right cochleas are flourishing and healthy.
For this affirmation, I rely on some inside knowledge: I’m on the Board of the Hearing Health Foundation, a nonprofit which is funding research labs at top universities across the country to find a cure for hearing loss. Gifted scientists like Andy Groves have explained to me that hearing loss occurs when those tiny hair cells in the cochlea die off. With this affirmation, I send a message directly to my inner ears that I expect those hair cells to be around for the long haul.
I have the right to listen and hear.
During my childhood, my mother was very good at encouraging me to ask for accommodations so I could hear. As a result, in concert halls, classrooms, and churches, I sit in the front row, even if I look like a nerd. Although these days my relationship with my mother is very complicated, I want to affirm for my hearing health what she taught me, that I have the right to hear.
I hear because I am a mother, a wife, a writer, an editor, a pianist.
I use this hearing health affirmation to round off the set. I like to cite out loud how my ability to hear is so intimately tied to the most important parts of my identity. I hope that my body, especially those tiny hair cells inside of my cochlea, will have no choice but to flourish.
Elderly, retired college professor and amateur classical pianist has gradually become deaf since my early sixties. Have difficulty hearing all music, especially having a gestalt of what I’m hearing. In other words, what key is the music in, and how does this shift throughout the work… this seems like a brain dysfunction, yet the rest of my brain seems reasonably intact, in spite of old age. Verbal and quantitative skills are good.
Speech hearing is fair, and music is poor at best. My audiologist works diligently, trying to improve my musical perception. By the way, on most days I can predict the pitch of a particular note, sing it, and then verify it at the piano… and I am usually right on target. As for your article on affirmations, it sounds like a positive, active acceptance of healthy bodily functions, and I am not surprised to learn that your organs respond constructively to your mental stroking. Thank you for publishing your thinking. Sincerely, Chuck Stuart, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
Thank you for your comment; I’m sending good wishes for hearing your piano music!
Here’s another one for you: my neck is relaxed and supple and the circulation to my ears is improving every day and night!
I love that affirmation, Pearl. And it makes a lot of sense considering how much time many of us spend craning our necks at the computer…or at the piano score!
Hi, these sounds so wonderful. Thanks for sharing it with us. Has these affirmations made a difference to your life? I am sure it must have changed certain aspects of your faith in it.
Thanks for your comment! I do feel that they’ve made a difference for me, especially for performing on the piano. Typically as a performance draws closer, and I question why I’ve signed up for such a big commitment, the affirmations help to keep me centered.
Thank you Nancy – I was googling affirmations for hearing loss to see if they work. I’ve been using Louise Hay’s affirmation of I hear and listen with love. My hearing has been getting worse and worse over the last 2 years and it’s most likely a result of blocking out childhood trauma. I’m trying very hard with these affirmations now but I want to check when you say it has made a difference with the affirmations, what do you mean specifically? Is your hearing better or ? Many thanks.
Hi Lu, thanks for writing. That’s a good question. For me, affirmations help me to move towards my potential and dreams, even though I have a hearing loss. So it’s more that the affirmations help me to understand ways that I can work with my hearing loss–sometimes seeking accommodations, other times realizing that my hearing loss is not the barrier I once thought–as I try to live my life most fully. I hope that this helps!