This affirmation to me is about self-forgiveness, offering yourself grace, learning to find freedom and empowerment in letting go of shame. It’s about the courage of these men and how inspiring that is to me. It’s about the possibility and potential to change the course of your life, to make an impact in your own existence and to find purpose and fulfillment. It’s about a lot.

 

Every Friday morning I facilitate a group mental health session at an incredible program that offers support to Indigenous men in getting back on their feet and getting their lives on track. It’s a huge honour to support these men in their courage and commitment to making a change, and I have learned as much from them as I hope they have learned from me.

 

Many of them have pasts that include trauma and violence. We started a discussion about shame and one resident in particular shared that there are things he was holding onto and feeling shame about. We talked about self-forgiveness. The following session, I guided us in doing a poetry exercise. I was thinking of this particular resident as I wrote the affirmation “I forgive myself for the things I am holding onto” on the board, and asked everyone to write a poem where each word of this phrase was the first word of a line of the poem.

 

After I wrote it on the board, the guys all said “Woah, that looks cool, it’s a sick graphic. Could look awesome on a t-shirt.”

 

So here it is.

 

I hope you wear it proudly and remember to forgive yourself.



www.valerybrosseau.com



• 100% cotton face

• 65% ring-spun cotton, 35% polyester

• Front pouch pocket

• Self-fabric patch on the back

• Matching flat drawstrings

• 3-panel hood

• Blank product sourced from Pakistan