This card encourages you to generate your own affirmations. They are especially powerful when they come from your own deep self reflection. If you are unsure whether you have chosen a good affirmation, you may want to check with a trusted friend or a professional therapist. However, I think that all you really need to do is trust your own intuition. You are the only who knows exactly how your psyche has been affected by negative circumstances and traumatic events in your life. Your affirmations will have your unique spin that your psyche will recognize and respond to.
Affirmations should be repeated multiple times over a period of time such as days or even weeks. Write them down in a journal. Over time you may want to revisit certain affirmations. They are also a sign post of the healing that has taken place over time. Another method I have employed is making eye contact with myself in a mirror while inflecting my voice and emphasizing different words in the phrase, hence the mirror in the card image. It is somewhat like what one would do in an acting class but it is for the benefit of your own mind. For affirmations that are particularly challenging to internalize and digest, I have also used a dry erase marker to write them on my bathroom mirror.
Repetition of affirmations is believed to work because it taps into one’s subconscious. At the very least affirmations can improve your mood, helping you to feel more optimistic. Pop psychology that grew out of the 20th century extended the power of positive thinking to include the law of attraction and raising one’s “vibration.”1 There may or may not be something mystical to positive affirmations but it seems plausible that feeling better about oneself would lead to making better life choices. I have found that they really do work when my underlying belief is in line with the affirmation. The function of the affirmation is to push aside negative beliefs I have absorbed from external sources.
Although going back to ancient times with various religions,2 positive affirmations really took off in the 1980’s when Louise L. Hay published You Can Heal Your Life. During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980’s and 90’s, Hay offered comfort and positive solutions to both the victims of HIV and their loved ones. I personally hold her in my heart for helping me navigate an emotionally very difficult time. At that time I was just starting out in the Boston classical music free lance scene. Morbidly, I have always felt I learned the Mozart Requiem from having played so many memorial services.
When I drew the mirror image for this card, I envisioned a psychedelic version of the mirror in Snow White. In a way, the evil queen is saying an affirmation to which the magic mirror spirit answers back. Speaking affirmations in a mirror may seem magical but the spirit answering back is your own inner truth. You can create affirmations about any area in your life about which you lack confidence or otherwise doesn’t seem to be working for you. They can cover relationships, health, career objectives, creativity, money, spirituality, and overall mental health. As Louse L. Hay would say: “You can do it!”
- Kathryn J Lively Ph.D. ‘Affirmations: The Why, What, How, and What If?’ (March 12, 2014). psychologytoday.com. (Accessed May 30, 2021).
- Crystal Raypole. ‘Positive Affirmations: Too Good to Be True?’ Healthline.com. (Accessed May 30, 2021).