Positive affirmations ✨
You are a wise and beautiful human...
This week, I’ve been experimenting with positive affirmations.
You are a wise and beautiful human
I have to confess that, much like a gratitude practice, it seems silly that words can make much of a difference to our mental health.
But then, Stephen sent me a message about the I am app.
I am sends positive affirmations throughout the day to your phone. Today, the app has told me that I have a good brain, that I think positive thoughts, and that I radiate positive energy with ease. And I’m starting to believe it.
I am fine with who I am; I love who I am becoming
If you’d like to experiment with positive affirmations but aren’t so keen on the app, try writing some post-it notes and sticking them in places you regularly see in your home. You might be surprised by the positive effects.
I deserve to be healthy, happy and successful.
I am proud of myself for getting this far.
I deserve endless love and happiness.
I remember expressing some reluctance to Jodee, my lovely therapist, about positive affirmations. Isn’t it a bit silly to write notes around the place to myself? She seemed to think that my self esteem and sense of self worth was worth more than looking silly.
One of the phrases Jodee suggested I post somewhere prominent was designed to help me to put my life (and in particular my physical health) before my work. It said, They don’t pay me enough not to look after my body.
What else is going on
1) This week I sat down with Netflix, a glass of wine and Gosford Park. I enjoyed the chemistry between Ryan Phillippe and Kristen Scott Thomas almost as much as I enjoyed Phillippe’s attempts at a Scottish accent.
2) I am moving house (to the other end of the cycle path) and am very hyped about it. More on that later.
3) Last weekend, I took 9yo to Go Ape in Chessington. More about this trip:
The trip to Chessington
Chessington is a small town near Kingston in the UK, just west of London and famed for the more famous theme park, Chessington World of Adventures, which I still think of as having opened 'recently' (in 1987).
Go Ape is your opportunity to behave like a monkey for the day, scampering around the treetops, hurtling down zipwires and snowballing helplessly with a faceful of woodchip into your friends at the end of the 'landing zone'.
Think forest bathing meets The Crystal Maze and you're halfway there.
As we arrived in the car park, we heard the cacophonous squeals of newly broken-up school children being Mach 3'd around the nearby World of Adventures (the rollercoaster based bit of the park).
I thanked my lucky stars that I was not in charge of a 15-year-old's birthday party that day.
9yo was excited. Not by the banshee wails filling the air, but the staggering four-person zip wire, positioned 50ft off the ground and slap-bang in front of the reception hut.
Having completed the obligatory admin at the reception hut, we witnessed the first terrifying sight of the day, right above our heads.
Two young men in trainers clipped their carabiners to the zip wire in such a way that they began their descent heads down, legs akimbo, whooping as they descended to their absolutely certain deaths.
"Oi! DOWN!! ... D-... DOWWWN!!!", bellowed the nearest instructor, fearing the worst.
We never saw the aftermath but the absence of sirens in the ensuing minutes suggests that the lads got away with it.
I put this out of my mind, took 9yo’s hand and trotted him down a puddle-spotted dirt track to our safety briefing.
The Go Ape instructors have their work cut out. Keeping the public safe as they clamber around on ropes, 50ft above the forest floor carries significant responsibility compared to the clunk-clicking of punters into high-velocity rollercoasters half a mile down the road at the theme park.
These brave but weary folk have to get the attention of small children, hen parties and the almost entirely disengaged Parents-on-Instagram, and they have to do it between 30 and 40 times a day, depending on how sunny it is.
I can only assume that there's a moment at dusk when all the punters have finally f*cked off when they can go down the zip wires backwards, beers in hand, celebrating another zero-fatality day at the office.
But back to the briefing.
The instructor was giving us excruciatingly clear and simple instructions:
"Three people allowed on a platform", he announced brusquely.
"Two on a walkway, 1 on a zip wire. How many on a platform?"
"Two!" exclaimed Parent-on-Instagram with enthusiasm, to demonstrate that they had been listening.
"Three!" shot back everyone else, relieved to have waited for half a second in case it was a trick question.
Parent-on-Instagram looked unabashed, grinned at the group and resumed scrolling.
"Oi!!!" the instructor yelled unexpectedly at someone above us who had failed to clip on their carabiner.
"Go back!"
The person reversed awkwardly onto the platform, over-subscribing it immediately and causing a small panic amongst the three, tutu-clad children behind.
The place seemed to be a heartbeat away from disaster at every moment.
Nevertheless, 9yo and I had a cracking time. It was a lovely bonding experience, less terrifying than I expected and super fun.
Even if I did have to go round the loop with the crawl-through cargo net twice. Which was in no way dignified.
I am a strong, confident woman