‘Service’ centres around 10 affirmations typed on 2 blank documents. The first serves two purposes; it is an internal dialogue between two natures (positive and negative) and it serves as a tool reminiscent of those used in guided prayer (e.g., rosaries) that keep track of progress done and indicate what will follow (a timeline). It serves as the home base returned to after the repetitions on the second document are completed.
The second document follows the first and serves as the medium for implementation of the affirmations. In this document, good/bad gets thrown out the window. They are simply and predictably repeated forty times in a mantra-like way – in Christianity, the number is usually used to mark a period of importance (testing) and/or bring about the completion/fulfilment of promises (not always good).
There is an air of irrationality in this commitment to laboriousness, whether that be to seek comfort, indulge obsessiveness or superstition. From their language, some affirmations suggest self/external chastisement after misconduct with their language. Others are quite general, self-help-like or have a circumstantial specificity that invite questions of the context that led to them. Either way, they allude to being controlled responses to stressors. The sessions provide an introspective and meditative moment of devotion to oneself through the commitment to completion of the affirmations. x