WEEKLY AFFIRMATION 14

Why aren’t more people saying this about themselves?

Illustrated by KIRU.

Just this past weekend, I spent a lot of time reflecting on the affirmations published into The Book of Positive Affirmations. I thought about what they mean in general, and what they mean to me. I thought about why they are important to me now, and how they’ve been important to me in the past. And when I got to the end of the book, I thought about the significance of living life in order, taking things one step at a time.

Today we live in a world that constantly pressures us to conform. A world that tries to beat us down and, through some messy combination of explicit and implicit biases, dictate to us who we can and cannot be. Social media is full of mixed messages that can sometimes leave us lost on what we believe about ourselves and the world around us. And yes, this includes the #selflove movement, which on one hand is telling you how to improve your physical features or day to day habits while the exact same movement (maybe just a different corner, room or neighbourhood of the movement?) is telling you to change absolutely nothing about yourself. How can we overcome these challenges without being totally crushed by the pressures of society?

I understand that I often ask questions that have no simple answers to them. In my defense, it is because the complexities…