's motd Thurs June 3, 2010

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MANTRAS

Thursday, 03 June 2010

You do know what a mantra is, don't you? It's a word or phrase you repeat with meaning to yourself over and over again. Some of the mantras in our lives, we've lived with for decades.

There are two kinds of mantras. The first group are the negative ones. Oh, you know what I'm talking about. An example of some of those negative mantras go like this:"You're a big fat pig! You're ugly! You're never going to amount to anything! You're stupid! You're lazy! Nobody likes you! You're such a failure!"Wow! Those are some really negative mantras, aren't they? I mean, who goes around saying such negative things to themselves about themselves?Well, many of those negative mantras originate in our childhoods. You may have had some negative people in your past, (maybe even family members), who said those kind of horrible things to you and about you. As those things are repeated about you over-and-over again, as you grow up, those negative comments keep ringing in your head and you actually begin to believe them! And when you're already feeling really low, those negative mantras will only make you feel lower about yourself. And hey, that's no good! Repeating and believing these negative mantras about yourself are incredibly self-destructive. As a matter of fact, the more you repeat and believe them, well, they can really affect the quality of your life.

Now let's talk about the other kinds of mantras...the positive ones. If you were lucky, you may have picked some up when you were a kid, too. That would have been because the people around you loved and said positive things to you and about you. And those mantras were repeated to you over and over again. Ones like these... "You're a really wonderful person. I love you and I'm so proud of you. You are so smart. You really know how to get along with others, that's why everyone likes you so much."And every time you heard these positive mantras, you truly began to believe those positive things about yourself. As we grow up, it's up to us to have our own positive mantras that will help keep us on the right track in our lives. As a matter of fact, I have a few of the mantras I use in my own life. Here're some examples:When you're going through a rough time in your life, say to yourself...This too shall pass. (And you know it will.) Here's another, Winners never quit and quitters never win. And here's a positive mantra that's been around for decades: When life hands you lemons, make yourself some lemonade. Want one more? Life is bigger than today! And one I always tell myself is this: Don't sweat the small stuff.

I know a lot of people whose mantra is the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.And you know what? Positive mantras really do work. You may have to repeat them many times but the day will come when you believe them because...you've made them true!Now one more mantra before I let you go: When the going gets tough, the tough get going!Love,