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This post touches on suicide loss. Please read with care, and know that if you're struggling, you don't have to carry it alone. Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14.
An affirmation is simply a declaration of what is true, even when it doesn't feel that way yet. Let me answer the question with a story.Â
There once was a woman who was beautiful. She really was. She was classic and she seemed to never age. Her taste in clothes was sometimes a little different to most, and yet she wore them like they were the latest fashion.
Her beauty wasn't just contained to her outward appearance, her heart for others is what made her truly beautiful. People adored being around her, and she radiated joy wherever she went. Her ability to seek out the one in the room who felt unseen and unloved was a gift. She would go out of her way to make sure they knew they mattered.
But none of that mattered to her. Because she didn't believe she was any of those things.
No matter how many times people told her how much they loved her, how much she mattered, how incredible she was, she didn't believe it. She wrestled daily with the gap between what people saw and what she felt inside. Her home was filled with pretty things and memories, but nothing that affirmed what was true about her. And every day, the voice she heard most wasn't the voices of the people who loved her. It was a quieter, darker one that told her she wasn't good enough, wasn't strong enough, that her life had no real value.
Eventually, what she felt became all she believed.
On June 17, she decided her life had no value. And she cut it short that day.
Why this matters so deeply to me
I truly and wholeheartedly believe that if my mum had something in her bedroom, something she saw first thing every morning that reminded her of her value, her goodness, her strength, and how deeply she was loved, she may have made a different choice that day.
Because here's what I know to be true: when you see something enough, you start to believe it. That's why what you surround yourself with matters. What you watch matters. What you listen to matters. What you read matters. And what you place in your everyday space, matters more than most of us realise.
So, do affirmations actually work?
If a child hears they're stupid every single day, they'll eventually believe it.
If a model hears they're beautiful every single day, they'll eventually believe it.
If a woman hears she's worthless every single day, she'll eventually believe it.
If a man hears he can't be loved every single day, he'll eventually believe it.
Yes, affirmations work. I know, because I've seen what happens when they aren't there.
This is the very reason every Morro & Co candle and diffuser comes with a quote or affirmation. Not as decoration, but as a daily, tangible reminder that you are loved, you are strong enough, your life has value, and there is always hope, no matter how dark it gets.
Every day, something will fight against that truth. So why not make sure you're equipped for it? When you know who you are, your real truth, that is when your life begins to open up in ways you didn't think possible.
Place the right words in your space. Read them when you wake. Let them become what you believe.
Because you are worth believing good things about yourself.