Face Challenges with a Positive Mantra (Transcription)

[audio:https://www.thementalhealthgym.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Face-Challenges-with-a-Positive-Mantra.mp3|titles=Face Challenges With a Positive Mantra|artists=Dr. Ron Kaiser]

Hello once again this is Dr. Ron Kaiser with your February 2013 audio podcast from The Mental Health Gym. I hope that 2013 gotten off to a good start for you that you’re thinking positively and hopefully some really good things have been happening. For those of you who made New Year’s resolutions I hope that you’re keeping them and building upon them and making them a part of your life, assuming that they were the right resolutions to make in the first place. Today I’d like to talk about something that’s a little different, the use of mantras.

We don’t talk about this too much at the mental health gym but some of the stuff we do actually implies the use of mantras. Now a mantra as you may be aware is a commonly repeated word or phrase. In Hinduism the mantra is actually a sacred verbal formula that keeps being repeated during times of prayer or meditation. So the Hindus tend to find that their mantra is actually capable of creating a transformative state that enables them to feel more together and at peace as they pray and meditate. Now various forms of meditation have adopted the use of the mantra as part of the process and people are taught to utilize words like ohm or one or a word of their choice as they go through the meditation process.

Initially it may help in keeping focused and avoiding distractions but the mantra seems to take on kind of a life of its own and helps in the transformative state that takes place when people become real true mediators. Now another popular use of the mantra is sort of as a motto or statement or a slogan. Some advertising agencies have built product lines around a mantra and encourage people to kind of repeat the jingle, the phrase, the kind of lifestyle quality that some mantras kind of project. A lot of organizations, teams, musical groups, or others also tend to get a phrase or word, a slogan that kind of binds them together and encourages their fans to recognize them by the mantra.

Now from our vantage point in building positive thinking and going forward, I found it really helpful to develop kind of the go to phrase when a person faces challenges. In other words for many people the first impulse when you face a challenge is to kind of withdraw say this is too tough I can’t do it, nobody does it, I’m too old, I’m too young, I’m too whatever, the mantra actually becomes a negative kind of thing. Useful to get you to stop doing things but that’s not how challenges get met and that’s not how things get accomplished. So what I like to have you learn to do is when you’re facing a challenge when something seems difficult, when the odds seem to be against you, develop a positive slogan, phrase, a mantra that enables you to  deal with it. It doesn’t guarantee success but in enables you to deal with it and it enables you to try and it enables you to assess the challenge accurately.

As you may guess my mantra is the same as the title of my first eBook what can go right. So whenever I’m faced with a challenge, the first thing that I ask is what can go right. I may get to what can go wrong and look at that too objectively but I like to start with a positive mindset of saying what can go right. Those of you who may have followed some of my writings or who purchased my five questions interview may recognize that there are also some questions that could service mantra in there, some of the question that I raise sometimes working with people but also in my work in The Mental Health Gym. Phrases or questions like how will this get me where I want to go? In others words when we get there how will this help me get to where I want to go rather than letting the challenge defeat me?

 Another question that can serve as a mantra is am I a fortune teller? Another one is what does this have to do with me? That’s a mantra that can be used when somebody else is trying to dump things on you. Make you feel guilty, things of that nature. What does this have to do with me, the fact that somebody else is acting inappropriate or crazy or however. Again those mantras are appropriate for specific times. It may not be appropriate for others. One of the things I liked about what can go right is that it’s so useful in so many situations but there’re lots of other phrases that may fit you. Phrases like I can do this or I’ve overcome bigger problems than this or I’m really a pretty awesome person.

You know if I start out with a very positive self image as I deal with a challenge, hey I’m part of the way they’re in terms of defeating it, again it doesn’t necessarily guarantee success but it guarantees that you’re looking at it from a positive perspective and if there is a chance of pursuing it positively, if trying makes sense, the mantra helps you to focus on trying rather than giving up. Now this may seem pretty simplistic to those of you who’re saying that I have just one suggestion, give it a try. Develop a mantra, call upon the best part of you, most positive part of you and implement it when you face challenges. I’m pretty certain that you’ll find that at least some of the time it’s going to help you to be successful and to build as you go forward. So the mantra should become a part of your life as a very individual process, a technique that helps you to deal with challenges and that helps you to achieve greater and greater success.

As usual I’m very interested in hearing what you think about this, I’m very interested in hearing when you try things and see whether you’re successful, whether you’re happier, whether you’re confronting some things that you haven’t anticipated and we could kick that around talk about how we might approach differently if that’s the case. But I’m particularly interested in hearing about those times when you may have avoided situations but call upon your mantra and it proved to be successful.

So this is the end of the podcast for February 2013. This is Dr Ron Kaiser, I’ll look forward to you, to speaking with you in the next month. I do wanna remind you that each month in addition to the audio podcast we do post three blogs on the mental health gym website and obviously all members of the mental health get our monthly newsletter. I’m very happy that so many of you gotten involved, I hope that some of you will take this advice and if you don’t already have a positive mantra I hope you’ll introduce it into your functioning. Take care we’ll speak with you next month.