I sit here thinking about the last several weeks as I inhale my dairy free mint chip ice cream. Mint chip has always been my go-to comfort flavor. Have no explanation. No analogy. Nothing. It just tastes good. It is good for my soul, but definitely not my hips! You know what they say, “a moment on the lips, forever on the hips.”
But one thing that I will forever want to be on my hips is hope, resilience and gratitude. I had an amazing opportunity for some meditation Friday night. I was asked to think of a color and have that color travel down my body and to relax each part of my body as the color traveled. We started at the top of my head where my thoughts and struggles begin and we ended at the tips of my toes where I can usually walk off those same struggles. During this travel of color, I was asked to think of a mantra. I embrace tons of mantras so to pick one at that minute was a bit challenging. My mind started wandering to my biggest need at that moment in time and it was worry! But the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” kept coming into my thoughts. A bit too much energy for a meditation mantra so I embraced “No worry”.
As I have said before, I am a worrier who strives to be a warrior. And I put my warrior gear on as I repeated, “no worry” and coaxed my body to relax and let go. I was then asked to smile. I stuck a smile on my face. That simple direction changed the course of my thoughts and, in turn, how my body felt. It was no longer beleaguered with worry. And, then, I was asked to smile again to “lock it in.”
The feeling that a smile brought to my body has been locked in along with hope and resilience. In fact, it has been locked in and I have thrown away the key to discouragement and frustration.
I have taken a dose of prescribed medicine in the form of mantra. What is your mantra that will be key to your hope, gratitude and resilience?
Note: Please Help! I have begun working on a writing project for print
and would love to hear your mantras.