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Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I’ll be completely honest – I used to think all this affirmation stuff was complete hooey. This was before I finally recognized that my unconscious beliefs about myself playing on a record in the back of my mind, not to mention my conscious self-talk, were the main reason that I weighed upwards of 360 pounds.

I sat back and listened to myself, truly listened to what I was saying in my mind, and realized I was MEAN! I absolutely would NEVER have said the things I said to myself in my head to another human being. I could never have been that hurtful. So why, then, did I think it was acceptable to say those things to myself? That was a turning point. I started practicing being kinder to myself in my mind. I learned to love myself. Now, let’s be clear – it took me quite some time between learning to love myself to actually starting to lose the weight. These mental shifts generally do not happen overnight. I think it took that long to truly believe all those nice things I was saying to myself – to finally get the needle out of the mean groove in the record, you know?

I use affirmations – and over the years, I’ve learned a few things about me and affirmations. First, affirmations in the negative didn’t work all that well. For instance “I will not eat sugar” only caused me to think about sugar all the time. So that changed to “I will eat healthy”. And then I realized that trying to keep all those statement type affirmations in my head (“I will eat healthy” “I am calm and centered” “I am powerful and can achieve my goals”) weren’t quite catchy enough for me to remember them on a consistent basis. Since I like to rhyme all the time (see what I did there?), I decided to shorten things down and make it easy to learn and repeat. Any affirmations you might choose will not be the same as mine, but I will share what mine are so that you get the flavor of what I’m talking about. I repeat these to myself when I’m in child’s pose doing yoga, when I’m waiting for…well, almost anything…and most importantly, this repetition is what sends me off to sleep at night.

I am healthy
I am wealthy
I am gracious
and tenacious
I inspire
I desire
I'm courageous
and audacious
I am lean
I eat clean
Filled with glee
to be free
I believe
I receive
I find peace
and deep sleep

These are short versions of things that have longer meaning for me – and what is important is that I know what they all mean. I can break it down, though, so if you’re writing your own affirmations you can see where I was coming from.

I AM HEALTHY – well, this one is pretty self-explanatory.

I AM WEALTHY – you may think this one is self-explanatory, but it means wealth in more ways than just financially (although that is part of it, of course). I am wealthy in the love of family, I am wealthy in the support of friends, I am wealthy with opportunities…you get the picture.

I AM GRACIOUS – I truly believe that gratitude is the key to happiness and finding true gratitude for what you have (instead of yearning for what you don’t) makes life not only more bearable but infinitely more enjoyable.

AND TENACIOUS – this means I will NOT give up. I will lose the same 10 pounds over and over and over again if I have to. I will make the same mistakes 50 million times if I have to. I will keep starting over forever if I have to.

I INSPIRE – getting healthy has made such a dramatic difference in my life that I want to inspire others to make positive changes. Inspiration is free!

I DESIRE – I’ve learned that it’s OK to want to change, improve, grow (well, not grow physically…but you get the drift). I used to believe that I wasn’t deserving of better – now I know different!

I’M COURAGEOUS – this has to do with the fear of judgement and putting myself out there for the world to see. This is to shut up the little voice that tells me I’m not good enough.

AND AUDACIOUS – audacious has some negative connotations (a lack of respect), but it also means a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks. I’ve played a lot of things safe most of my life – it’s time to be bold!

I AM LEAN – another relatively self-explanatory one and I prefer this word to thin or skinny, as in my mind it includes not only being slender but being strong and healthy AND it also means that I eliminate “waste” from my life (wasted time, wasted energy, wasted thoughts).

I EAT CLEAN – for me, clean means whole-food plant-based. It covers so many things from striving to avoid added sugar to de-flouring my diet to (most recently) eliminating meat products.

FILLED WITH GLEE TO BE FREE – this specifically refers to freedom from food addiction. This is where I struggle to this day. My relationship with food can easily swing back to an unhealthy one – this is to remind me to stay on top of that freedom.

I BELIEVE – in myself

I RECEIVE – what the universe provides in response to what I ask

I FIND PEACE – no matter the situation, peace is possible

AND DEEP SLEEP – I’m still not so great at this one, but it is a recent addition to my affirmations and it will soon settle into a groove in my subconscious and become reality, as is the nature of affirmations!

And there you have it – my current mind mantra. All this stuff distilled down into a little rhyming ditty that I can remember and recite with ease. Do you use affirmations? Do you have a mind mantra? I’d love to hear about them!