The words we use have power… that’s the message of a local author, who happens to be 6 years old. She is using her words to make a difference.
“I am strong, I am amazing, I am beautiful,” said Taylin Goings. Goings is a second grader, who decided she wanted to write a book when she was in kindergarten.
“I just wanted to help other people remind ourselves that they are amazing,” Goings said.
Goings’s mother, a professor at UNC, had recently published a textbook. She says her daughter was intent on writing a book too.
“She would regularly ask me if she could write a book,” said Trenette Goings, her mother. “And so one day I said, ‘well, what would this book be about?
What do you want to write about?’ And she said, ‘I want to write a book focused on affirmations, telling people that their words are powerful.’”
“My mom wrote a book and I asked her if I could write a book,” Taylin Goings said. “And she said, ‘pretend?’ I said ‘no’. And so then when she said ‘real?’ I said ‘yes’.”
An affirmation is a short phrase that people repeat to themselves to help improve their mental health.
The Association of Psychological Science says affirmation of values can significantly lower cortisol, the stress hormone.
Goings was just five years old when she published “My Words are Powerful: an Affirmation Book”.