How affirmations changed my life........

by Donna
(Canada)

When I think back on my life, I can recall two instances where affirmations profoundly changed my life.

The first happened when I was 11 and in grade 6, and the second happened when I was 16.

Let me give you a bit of background. I am a middle child. My older sister was smart in school, always achieving straight A's. I was 2 years younger. My younger sister was also a straight A student, and was well liked and had lots of friends. I was the joke teller, the "blonde" who talked a a lot, who always got in trouble in school, and often had my desk sitting out in the hallway. I grew up always being compared to my sisters by my parents, and my teachers at school. I always heard "oh, you're so and so's little sister". ARGH! I could never measure up. So - I did what I did best: I fooled around. Yes, I was the class clown. Always getting into trouble. I hated school, and did poorly. I always had C's or lower.

Well, guess what. When I was in grade 6, my teacher (who had taught my older sister) got sick. In fact, he was so ill, that he had to quit teaching, and was off for the rest of the year. What happened is a beautiful, young, fresh out of school teacher arrived at our school, and became my teacher. Guess what. She didn't know me. She didn't know my sister. In fact, she LIKED me. (Previous, all my teachers were always so disappointed with me, and let me know with their negative affirmations) She liked the fact that I enjoyed reading, and she encouraged me. She told me that she thought I was smart. I can recall that suddenly I LIKED going to school, and I made sure that I worked on my homework, because I wanted to do well for her. Suddenly, for the first time in my life I got A's. Straight A's. My parents couldn't figure out what had happened! But to me - all of a sudden, I felt valued as a person - for me. She told me (positive affirmations) that I was smart - and suddenly I felt smart. And you know what? I really was smart the whole time, but had never been positively affirmed and I never believed in myself before.

I continued on this way in school, getting A's and the occasional B's for the rest of my school year, and in Grade 12, I had the highest grade point average in the whole school. All because of affirmations a teacher made to me when I was 12 years old - "Donna, I think you are smart!". Without knowing it, I rose to that challenge. What an impact! I have always wanted to find my teacher and thank her for what she did for me. I shudder to think of how school might have been had I never heard her words.

The second profound moment I had was the summer that I had gone to Campbell River to visit my best friend for a week. My friend was very adventurous, and we had very wild adventures together. One day we were in trouble for something, and I remember her mom standing there with her hands on her hips, and she looked at me and said "Donna, are you a follower or a leader?" I was quite surprised, and I remember thinking to myself, "are you crazy - it's your daughter who is the wild one, not me" and so I answered her, "I am a follower". She gave me a look, and said "You are NOT. YOU are a LEADER!" I can't remember what else she said following that, but I remember being totally shocked. Everything we had done had been my friend's idea, and I couldn't believe that she thought that I was the one with the ideas.

Well, my friend and I went to camp later that summer. The whole camp was divided into teams, and we were supposed to pick a team captain. No-one in my group said a word, and everyone was just looking around at each other. I remembered my friend's mom affirming "you are a LEADER" - so I suddenly spoke up, and said "hey - I'll be team captain". Everyone thought that was great, and then we had to come up with a team cheer. I also came up with a tune that we could sing our cheer to (and would you believe I still remember it?) and guess what - OUR TEAM WON! We didn't have all the jocks on our team either, but we had determination. Believe it or not, our team was the winning team at the end of the week, and we got to eat a HUGE long banana split. It was amazing. Probably should have been in the guinness world book of records for the largest, longest most decadent banana split.

Anyhow, that was a turning point in my life. I realized that I WAS a leader, and that I didn't have to be afraid to make decisions. That summer changed my life. And I was able to thank my mom's friend who spoke those positive affirmations into my life.

You ARE what you think. If you think you are a failure, you will act like a failure. If you think you are lovable, you will ACT lovable. I could go on and on, but you get the point. We all have something positive about ourselves. Even if no-one ever tells you - you can tell YOURSELF. Get into a habit of only saying POSITIVE affirmations about yourself. What you say; you will believe. Don't allow negative thoughts to build up, and ruin your life.

You are important. You have purpose. You are special.

Believe it, affirm it, it's true.