What’s your Mantra?
The power of a mantra comes from repeating a word or phrase that’s meaningful to us in our lives. As we talked about last week, a mantra can be defined as “that which protects the mind.” There are so many mantras you can choose to help get yourself out of the mental loop of thoughts. So how does one decide what mantra is helpful for them in any given moment?
It’s good to take a moment of pause when I’m in a stressful or challenging situation and do a body scan. I do the scan 3x. The first is to see how my physical body is responding to the stress. Then I scan to see how my energetic body is handling the challenge. Lastly, I scan to see how my mental body is responding. I pay attention to whether my thoughts are negative, combative, or agitated. Once I’m able to assess where I am in that moment, then I can see what word or phrase would be most helpful.
”Mantras are passwords that transform the mundane into the sacred.” ~ Deva Premal
Some of my go-to mantras lately have been: “slow down,” “relax,” and “listen.” For myself, I can be so quick with my judgements when I’m moving too fast. So reminding myself to “slow down” allows me to really see where I’m at, who is around me, and what is actually happening in the current moment. Also, when I move too quickly, I miss the beauty of each day. I can get so task oriented, that I forget to appreciate the small conversations I’m having with people. Or even the butterflies fluttering around my yard. The mantra “relax” is also really helpful for me when I get caught up in the business of a day. I remind myself that not everything on the to-do list has to be accomplished right now… so I relax and just do the next thing on my list. Finally, “listen” is so helpful when I’m conversing with someone that has a differing opinion from me. Reminding myself to listen to each person with deep curiosity. No one is ever going to have the same exact understanding or opinion as I do on social, political, even spiritual situation. So reminding myself to listen with deep curiosity is so helpful.
Play around with finding your own mantra this week and see if you can transform a stressful situation into one of deeper awareness and appreciation.
Tune in next week where we’ll talk about when to use these powerful mantras in your life. This might be really helpful as we go into the holiday season and might feel some “to-do” stressors creeping into our lives.
With love and gratitude
