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16 Affirmations to Get You Through Hard Days

16 Affirmations to Get You Through Hard Days

This is THE affirmation that’s helped me make meaning from my grief:

“I want to do more than just survive.”

That’s how I want to show up in my life after everything that’s happened.

There are those days, though, where it takes all our strength just to get out of bed in the morning. I’ve known many of those days.

These affirmations are for those times. (You can use them on the easier days, too.)

Being human isn’t always easy, but we DO have the beautiful gift of choice.

One thing I’ve learned after the most traumatic event of my life, after my brother's suicide, is that I have the right to choose how I show up going forward. It took me nearly a decade to claim that right. I will not give that power away.

The words we choose to define our lives with are part of how we show up.

Noticed or not, spoken, or private, we are storytelling through affirmations – what we tell ourselves and others – all the time.

What you tell yourself in the privacy of your own mind influences your decisions and the behaviors you make habitual in everyday life.

What you tell others reaffirms how you see the world and your place in it.

What you think most of the time, it matters. Your life unfolds from there.

I created this list of self-affirming statements that've helped me fully inhabit myself and my life experiences, and not hide from them.

Statements like these offer reassurance, a sense of stability and empowerment in shaky situations, and reminders of who we want to be and the kind of effect we want to have.

I've learned that by giving meaning to hardship through words, you can structure a life around your values, your strengths, and your intentions.

You can show up with courage. You can figure this out. You can survive until you're ready to do more.

I hope these affirmations give you something helpful to think about when you’re just trying to survive, and then, eventually, when you’re ready to do more than that.

Think about what you want your story to be.

What story do you want to tell?

Choose the words that represent that.

Speak a strength.

By giving meaning to hardship through words, you can structure a life around your values, your strengths, and your intentions. You get to choose how you show up. I created these affirmations to help us fully inhabit ourselves and our more difficult experiences, so we can tell a story of strength and perseverance.

16 Affirmations to Carry You Through the Harder Days

I am durable.

I can face difficult things.

I can choose how to face this/show up.

I am stronger than I think. (Here’s the art print version of this.)

My best is good enough for now.

I am allowed to change my mind.

I am willing to try again. (This is where your life begins, again and again.)

My life has consequence.

How I respond is my karma.

I focus on what I can control.

I am my own keeper. (Reminds me of the poem, “I must go to her.”)

How I feel matters.

How I make other people feel matters.

I can make meaning from (nearly) anything.

I can find beauty in (nearly) anything.

I am fully here.

//

Tell me:

What could you, or do you, tell yourself to help you get through difficult times, or to make meaning from your grief?

Tell me in the comments.

What you share means more than you probably know.

With strength,

Jen

P.S. Want to get words like these in your inbox every other Tuesday? Sign up here and you’ll also get my Healing Brave Manifesto, totally free.

Comments on this post (4)

  • Jun 05, 2022

    My daughter has hurt me terribly again. My heart is totally broken this time. I feel like I can’t even breath.
    Donna

    — Donna

  • Feb 25, 2022

    Jen,

    I think the affirmation that is most applicable to me at this time is “I am willing to try again.” And after that, try again.

    Thank you,

    — Jim

  • Feb 12, 2022

    Unbelievable! You care! Thank you so much!!!
    I take time away from others as much as possible to draw from my inner strength to gain peace knowing that healing comes with time.

    Best,

    Mary

    — Mary Garrido

  • Feb 04, 2022

    Hi, Thank you for your inspiring words they are lovely❤.
    I’ve experienced difficult times myself over the past few years which has been hard but it makes us so much stronger..I’m working on my Self care and staying positive this gives the drive and motivation to Carry on…xx

    — Rachel Davies

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