How I Will Be More Present This Year
Could uttering a few words inside my mixed up head make any difference in the real world?
“Slow Down” — it’s the mantra I’m stepping into 2021 with. Do I really need to be reminded to slow down after a year spent indoors without much to do? Yes. Yes, I do.
The way I think of a mantra is a short phrase I keep in mind and say to myself often. A reminder to do something or lean in a certain direction. For me, a mantra is more like self-talk, rather than something that might be found in Transcendental Meditation or Kirtan Music.
I didn’t always think mantras and self-talk possessed value. For many years I believed they were quaint at best and delusional at worst. As rational beings, I believed that if we knew what we wanted to do, we’d simply do it. In hindsight, I “knew” this despite heaping mounds of evidence that I behaved otherwise.
What could uttering a few words inside my mixed up head do to make any difference in the real world? I immediately wrote off anyone who even suggested a mantra to me. I knew better and saw through the farce. I wasn’t going to buy into “The Secret” or the “laws of attraction.” Instead, if I set realistic goals — I’d have all the direction and motivation needed to achieve those goals and live as the best version of…
