Skip to main content

Life & Wisdom Quote by Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Today, and everyday, take as your personal mantra: I am what I am and what I am is wonderful"

About this Quote

A self-acceptance slogan that knows exactly what it’s doing: it takes the mushy, hard-to-sustain work of self-worth and compresses it into something you can repeat while brushing your teeth. Sarah Ban Breathnach, a lifestyle-spirituality author who built a brand on gentle rituals and daily affirmations, isn’t aiming for philosophical rigor. She’s offering a tool for mood management in a culture that profits from your dissatisfaction.

The intent is behavioral, not merely inspirational. “Today, and everyday” borrows the cadence of devotionals and recovery mantras, implying that self-regard is a practice, not a revelation. Calling it a “personal mantra” makes the line feel both intimate and quasi-sacred, a small private liturgy meant to crowd out harsher inner scripts. It’s also a subtle reframe of discipline: not the discipline of fixing yourself, but the discipline of refusing the constant upgrade cycle.

The subtext is defensive in the best way. “I am what I am” carries a faint echo of identity politics and existential stubbornness; it’s a preemptive “no” to scrutiny, comparison, and the market’s endless before-and-after narrative. Then comes the crucial pivot: “and what I am is wonderful.” Wonderful is deliberately broad, a word that bypasses evidence. You don’t have to be exceptional, improved, or approved. You just have to stop pleading your case.

In context, it’s classic late-20th/early-21st-century self-help: a counter-spell to perfectionism, packaged for repetition, because repetition is how culture gets under the skin.

Quote Details

TopicSelf-Love
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Breathnach, Sarah Ban. (2026, January 11). Today, and everyday, take as your personal mantra: I am what I am and what I am is wonderful. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/today-and-everyday-take-as-your-personal-mantra-i-183947/

Chicago Style
Breathnach, Sarah Ban. "Today, and everyday, take as your personal mantra: I am what I am and what I am is wonderful." FixQuotes. January 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/today-and-everyday-take-as-your-personal-mantra-i-183947/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Today, and everyday, take as your personal mantra: I am what I am and what I am is wonderful." FixQuotes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/today-and-everyday-take-as-your-personal-mantra-i-183947/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Sarah Add to List
I Am What I Am and What I Am Is Wonderful - Sarah Ban Breathnach
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Sarah Ban Breathnach (born October 5, 1948) is a Author from USA.

39 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

GG Allin, Musician
GG Allin