This post is part of the IndieWeb Carnival, Artlung is hosting this initiative for February.

I live life with a constant narrator in my head. All my thoughts are in my voice and almost always in the third person. The narrator hasn’t always been the kindest, in fact it has sometimes been quite nasty.

“You idiot”, “What a twat”.

There’s a quote from someone that says (I’ll paraphrase) if someone else spoke to me the way I spoke to me, I wouldn’t have them in my life. And that’s true.

When I was diagnosed with depression at the end of 2019 (what a great time to get sad) I turned to affirmations to start the day, to try and turn the narrator around, to change who they were, and to reform who I thought I was.

I am Accepted

I renounce the lie that I am rejected, unloved or shameful.

I am Secure

I renounce the lie that I am guilty, unprotected, alone or abandoned.

I am Significant

I renounce the lie that I am worthless, inadequate, helpless or hopeless.

Then I realised my affirmations spelled ASS.

But they worked. I stopped therapy and medication in 2020, and while I still have my ups and downs I can usually acknowledge that I am accepted, I am secure, and I am significant.

(I am sometime also ass.)