besides being a word that sounds really funny the more times you say it out loud (mantra…manTRAAA…MAAAANtra...), i believe that a mantra is something that everyone needs.
think about it – a mantra is basically like your own personal slogan. the original purpose of a mantra is to aid in meditation…a saying you repeat over and over in your head to help keep your mind focused. you could have a different mantra every day if you wanted, or you could pick one to be your signature mantra, and it becomes your guiding light for your life goals and plans.
going along with my theme of no new year’s resolutions, only new life resolutions, i have picked my mantra (and a sub-mantra) for the next chapter of my life:
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mantra: “if you change
nothing, nothing will change”
sub-mantra: “insanity: doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.” – that Albert Einstein sure was a smart guy…
*the first one is my main mantra because it is
short, sweet, and to the point…much easier to repeat in my head over and over
again…
now, these may seem like obvious statements, especially the first. but, one of my biggest flaws is that i desperately want things to be different – i want my clothes to fit better, i want my stomach to be flatter, i want to eat better – but i want things to stay exactly the same. basically i want to have my cake and eat it to…quite literally. it’s like the person who complains about never winning the lottery, but they’ve never played any numbers. it’s completely insane, but i do it all the time. it is very easy to sit on my butt and wonder why i’m not in better shape, to wish that i could just throw on an outfit without having to think about how it makes my love handles look. it’s a lot harder to actually change your lifestyle to get those things that you want. and it’s disappointing when you think about how simple it actually is when you break it down. don’t eat food that doesn’t make you healthy…don’t watch 6 hours of netflix on the couch after sitting on your butt for 8 hours at work. see? simple!
one other thing i’m really trying to focus on moving forward is not punishing myself for the things i didn’t do. the past is the past, and if i keep beating myself up for what i could have been doing rather than patting myself on the back for doing it now, i’ll never get anywhere. it’s a vicious cycle i tell ya!
so, that’s my mantra, and my hope is that always thinking about it will propel me in the right direction to make the lifestyle changes necessary to see the physical changes that i want!
do you have a mantra? how do you keep yourself motivated to make positive changes?
