Affirmation Journal - Keeping Centered

Over thirty years ago, my mother was making affirmation journals, although that term would never have come to her mind. In looking over one such book she had compiled, and wondering if others had made similar journals, it took me on a search to find information about an Affirmation Journal.

Keeping positive thoughts and quotations cut out from newspapers and magazines was mom's forte - remember that was in the day prior to computers when we actually held books in our hands for reading. Whenever she came across a written thought or even a paragraph that she knew she would like to re-read in the future, she would clip it from Sunday morning church bulletins, newsletters or even copy by hand her favorite scripture passages. Then she would paste these little snippets into a blank book for further pondering. She also illustrated portions of the books she put together with her own artwork. It was an activity from which she gained much benefit, as she battled depression her entire lifetime.

Looking through her journals today and seeing her signature watercolors makes me smile long after she has died. While working on a psychiatric hospital mental health team a few years ago, I used this form of "paper and reading craft" in helping severely depressed clients. Giving each patient the knowledge that positive affirmations kept in the forefront of our spirits is an aid to better mental health, and then teaching this simple act of clipping and pasting, proved to be a valuable teaching activity. Call it occupational therapy if you wish; affirmation journal making was engaging and helpful in channeling innermost thoughts toward a higher plane of purpose.

One client told me it was the most helpful thing she learned in her seeking solutions for greater well being. In gratitude, she showed me her newly begun personal clip-and-paste book that she had started while hospitalized. What a humbling satisfaction it was for me to learn this particular activity passed on by my mother was yet helping someone else a third generation later.

Above are some pictures of the pages of Ann McCarroll's journal. I hope you enjoy them, and perhaps this simple idea may set you on your own personal journey of seeking, saving and reviewing affirmations.

...one of my favorite affirmations: "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me". Philippians 4:13