Dear Aunty: How Do I Affirm Being Debt Free While Still Living In Debt?

Dear Aunty

I have put myself last for so long that it feels as if I am in a financial hole, and I know it is of my own doing. It is overbearing and makes me feel as if I just want to run but what I truly want is to be free. I know it takes time and I am creating payment plans, but how do I mentally process the affirmation of being debt-free while also existing with debt physically?

— Signed, Dreaming of Debt Free

Aunty's Response

Sweetheart, let's start here — no one arrives on this earth with a manual. No one is handed a blueprint for how to navigate financial hardship, how to recover from years of putting themselves last, or how to hold themselves together when the weight of what they owe feels heavier than what they believe they deserve. So the first thing I need you to release is the idea that you should have known better before you knew better. That is not how life works.

Now let's talk about this affirmation.

There is a difference between saying words and living truth. You can stand in your mirror every single morning and declare that you are debt free, that abundance is flowing, that every door is open — and if your habits, your disciplines, and your daily decisions do not reflect that declaration, your mind will not believe a word of it. Not because affirmations do not work. But because affirmations without action are just beautiful words with nowhere to land.

Here is what I need you to understand. Processing the affirmation of being debt free while you are physically sitting in debt is not about pretending the debt does not exist. It is about understanding that where you are right now is not where you are going. Every payment plan you create is an affirmation. Every time you choose discipline over impulse, that is an affirmation. Every boundary you set around your money, every standard you raise for how you spend and save and honor what you earn — that is your affirmation walking with legs.

The debt is real. And so is your future without it.

What makes the affirmation stick is the effort you put behind it. When your actions and your words begin to move in the same direction, you will stop fighting yourself every time you try to believe something better is coming. Because the evidence will already be in front of you. You will see it in the payment you made this month. You will see it in the habit you built this week. You will see it in the boundary you held yesterday that you would not have held a year ago.

Affirmations do not replace the work, sweetheart. They fuel it. So keep speaking it. And then get up every single day and give that affirmation something to stand on.

You are not stuck. You are in process. And process, when honored, always produces freedom.

— Aunty Charmaine

This content is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only and does not constitute professional medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. Always seek the guidance of a qualified professional for matters related to your health and wellbeing.

Soultribe Media | Soultribe.media | Sept 2026 All images by Melissa Shipper

Collective Soul Tribe Lesson

Soultribe, this week I need us to talk about the gap.

The gap between where we are and where we are going is not a place of shame. It is a place of becoming. Every single one of us is living in some version of that gap right now — affirming one thing while experiencing another. Believing in a future that has not yet arrived. Holding on to a promise while the present tells a different story.

That is not weakness. That is faith in action.

The Soultribe does not give up in the gap. We plant in it. We build in it. We do the quiet, unglamorous, daily work of becoming in it. And when the harvest comes — and it will come — we will understand that every single day we spent in the gap was not wasted. It was necessary.

Keep going, sweetheart. The gap is not your grave. It is your garden.

BREATH. CONNECT. RENEW.

Soulful

Proverb

"I have recognized true worth and blessings, both of which cannot be measured, as I am priceless."

Practice: Speak this proverb every morning before your feet hit the floor. Say it three times with intention. Let it remind you before the day begins that everything you are about to think, say, and do is a seed. Choose accordingly.

Speak this three times in the morning when you rise and three times at night before you rest. Say it with intention, not just words. Let it shift your mindset and anchor your faith in your own journey.

Affirmation

" I was created for such a time as this, my wealth flows to me gracefully and joyfully, all good things are open to me. So blessed be. (Repeat daily 8x — 8 is the numerology of money)"