I’ve never been big on affirmations, they can be hard to not sound cheesy or forced.
I am big on personal mantras. I talked briefly about this when I posted on Living For Yourself, but I wanted to expand on it today.
A personal mantra is similar to an affirmation in that it is something you come up with that you repeat to yourself, often that makes you feel better.
Your personal mantra can be about who you are or how you view life. “I’ve gotta be me!”
Or it can be something to help you calm down from the edge of a panic attack or depressive episode.
My manta is: “It’s okay.” I add to this depending on the situation but overall, my mind and body just need to know that “It’s okay.” Life is okay, we’re going to make it through. I’ve made it this far, through so many hardships and I’ve kept going and ya know what? It’s going to be okay.
When I’m driving to see my therapist, I repeat to myself, “It’s okay. It’s a safe place, with no judgement. It’s the place for me to heal.”
When I’m stressing about money or bills, I tell myself, “It’s okay. We have money to pay for dinner, we have money to pay our bills. It’s okay. We don’t have to choose between food and rent like before.”
When my son is throwing a tantrum and I am worn own, I take a breath and say to myself, “It’s okay. He’s a toddler, his life is still confusing and hard to deal with. We will be okay.”
When my husband and I are going out on a date and I’m worried about our son, we repeat, “It’s okay. His grandma knows how to take care of him, he’s less of a handful than he used to be. She knows how to put him down for bed now. He can survive without us for a few hours.”
See how adaptive my personal mantra is? That’s why I love it and use it often. There have been many times my anxiety has become too much and I need to take a moment away from the world and so I sit and repeat these words to myself. I struggle a lot with the idea that my feelings are in constant conflict with my thoughts. In my head, I know there’s no rational reason to be having a panic attack, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. So having this personal mantra to focus on, reminds my head and my anxiety that, “It’s okay.” It brings life back in to focus.
To create your own personal mantra, I recommend experimenting and paying attention for a week to see what you need and when you need it. If you need to remind yourself about self care then your mantra might be, “I before we.” If you need to work through food anxiety then your mantra might be, “Food is for nutrition, not comfort.” If you need some perspective on your life then your personal mantra might be, “My glass is half full…because…”
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