On my way to becoming a Spiritual Life Coach, learning to love myself was probably the hardest thing as an adult that I have had to do.  As a teenager and young adult, I grew up with no sense of worth.  No matter what I achieved in life and I achieved plenty, in my mind it was worth nothing and I was nothing if I didn’t achieve even more.  Eventually over the years I had to accept that my need to achieve and validate myself was like a well that was never going to get filled until I put a lid on it.  It was at my lowest ebb that I came across the power of affirmations.

For me, through the daily use of positive affirmations, I was able to kick the negative statements of ‘I am nothing’ to ‘I am me, that is all’. I realised I no longer needed validation from a perceived harsh world that damned everything that I did.   All I needed was to do things the best way I knew how and leave the appraisals in the bin, where they belonged.  I have taught my children to use affirmations as a buffer against the negative feedback they get from colleagues at school and society in general and now they come up with their own especially when they get frustrated with their efforts.  It can literally turn any bad day into a wonderful lesson of finding that you have nothing to prove except to be you.

Here is one positive affirmation that I find to be one of the absolute best…

One affirmation, ten times in one day, every day!

1. Wake up each morning to one and only one thought:  I love being ME
2. Dress the best way you know how, look in the mirror and repeat: I love being ME
3. Eat your breakfast slowly and deliberately and repeat: I love being ME
4. Speak and then pause and repeat to yourself quietly: I love being ME
5. Arrive at work or school, the cafe, post office, grocers, catch a glimpse of yourself in a window, repeat silently: I love being ME
6. Write an agenda, your homework, a poem, shopping list, presents to buy, things to do and write at the top: I love being ME
7. Ring up a friend & invite them over, chat to a neighbour, wave to kids you don’t know and whisper to yourself: I love being ME
8. Cook up a starter, main meal, decorate a biscuit or just put a frozen meal in the oven and say: I love being ME
9. Stay up late or go to bed early, read a book or watch TV and lastly don’t forget to say: I love being ME
10. Repeat the next morning from number 1 and add all the things that you have done that make you NUMBER ONE

Additional helpful positive affirmations:

• ‘I am here and therefore I am’
• ‘I love because I am love’
• ‘I will survive’
• ‘I have to be me’ …and so on and so forth

The important thing is to make the affirmation positively reinforcing and that you say it a lot, once or twice half-heartedly will not make the changes possible.  Say it loud and proud and you will see the changes in your sense of worth in the next few days!