Affirmations can be helpful in shifting our perspective to a place of optimism and gratitude.

This self-talk is often well-intentioned but can sometimes put us too far on the ‘good vibes only’ side.

When this happens, we can lose ourselves in pretending everything is fine to try and silence anything connected to negative emotions. We miss acknowledging and validating how we’re really doing, and we create a sense of shame around talking about it.

It’s great remind ourselves of the good, but not at the cost of ignoring other feelings that make us human.

Accepting and sitting with our emotions can help us to better understand and process them. It gives us room to build awareness, self-acceptance, reframe without judgement, and ask ourselves what would be needed or helpful in that moment.

Here’s a journaling tool that supports a balanced way of affirmative self-talk to make space for all the feelings.