Pauletta Francis has an uplifting message for her students at Elliot Primary School every day.

It’s been her practice to have her primary five class use words such as “smart” and “strong” to describe themselves.

She’s so confident about the effect the positive affirmations have had on their self-esteem that she’s published them in a book for children.

Soar includes such illustrated declarations as “I will have a great day”, “I will give and receive love” and “I am a creative genius”.

The book is available on Amazon.com; Ms Francis hopes it will be available in local stores soon.

“If you think of something long and hard enough it will happen,” she said.

“Our thoughts are very powerful. We have a lot of negativity in Bermuda and the world. I want to change that by giving my students the happy childhood they deserve through positive thinking and a positive life.

“I write an affirmation each day on the board. It’s often the first thing they look at when they come in.

“I’ve been teaching for 21 years and my passion is literacy. I love books.

“I’ve read so many of them to my daughter, who is now 28, and to my students. I always wanted to write my own children’s book because literature is so important in children’s lives.”

The idea for the affirmations came from her own experience five years ago.

“I was overweight,” she said. “I decided I wanted to become more fit and health conscious.”

The problem was getting out of bed at 4.30am to go to the gym

“Sometimes with exercise you want to give up,” she said. “I would use affirmations like ‘I am strong and healthy’ and at the gym I had a great support system to encourage me along.”

She’s since become a certified body pump and spinning instructor. This summer she put that same drive to work for young readers.

Her aim was to write something more positive than the typical storybook. Ms Francis “barrelled through the writing process”, completing it over the summer.

“I looked around and said there is not a whole lot of books for children on affirmations. I want kids to be able to speak things into existence and be happy and have the great childhood they deserve. Every morning I’d get up and say, ‘I am powerful. I am going to get the book finished in a certain amount of time’. I even said my book will sell millions of copies worldwide.”

The hardest thing about writing the book was deciding which of her many affirmations to use.

“It was trial and error,” she said. “Probably the most important one I included in the book was ‘I never ever give up’. I talked about that with my primary five students today. We talked about how our brain is a muscle and the more you work it the stronger it gets. We used math as an example of something that can be difficult. I told them you have to persevere and eventually your mind will achieve the concept. Another important one is ‘I love myself and I love everyone’. With those messages we could change the world.”