In 2020 many people saw a decline in their mental health and I was among the crowd. With the pandemic raging on every side and unemployment knocking at my door, my screen time reached an all-time high and my mental health plummeted. I battled with low mood and comparison daily and after crying ALL of the tears, I decided that I had to do something about it.

I landed on two things: therapy and positive affirmations.

While I already subscribed to the idea of therapy, I looked at positive affirmations with much scepticism. But the results they yielded amazed me.

Positive affirmations gave me three things that changed my perspective forever:

Hope

Logically, we all know that negative thoughts magnify the bad aspects of our lives, but what I didn’t realise was that it also rids you of hope that things could change. Positive affirmations bring that hope back.

Where negative thoughts told me that my life was horrible or that I would never get a job, affirmations reminded me that even though my life may not have been where I want it to be yet, it could change. Life is a series of cycles and I was just experiencing an uncomfortable one, but that wouldn’t always be the case. So, instead of focusing on what was, I could imagine what could be and that gave me hope.

Identity

My thoughts were notorious for telling me about what was and wasn’t “enough” and no matter what I did, I never made the cut. Positive affirmations however, pointed out that being enough isn’t about what you do, but who you are. While it’s easy to find the characteristics that we love about other people, looking inward reminded me that no one else is me and that’s what makes me enough. Every person has there own way of doing things and your way be the one that people are looking for!

Gratitude

Last but not least, affirmations taught me to embrace the present instead of rejecting it. #gratitude. By setting intentions for my day and reflecting on the good parts of it, my mind concentrated on the positive things that were happening around me and helped me to recognise the beauty in each day.

People often talk about embracing the process and not the destination and positive affirmations helped me to understand why. As corny as it may sound, there is beauty to be found in the in-between part of life, sometimes you just have to look a bit harder to see it.

Although it may seem small, these three things can shift your focus and that’s where change begins. And so, I would definitely say that positive affirmations are worth the hype. While they may not be the answer to all of life’s woes, they remind us that good things still exist on stormy days and with the year that we’ve had that alone is worth celebrating.