I love a good mantra! I use them all the time to get myself moving in the morning, to adjust my attitude when I need it, or to get through tough moments. I first learned about the power of self-talk in college, when I agreed to sell books door-to-door in Ohio (crazy right?). We started our days with a silly song about it being “…a great day to be a bookman”.
That summer I learned about the power of positive thinking, that “negativity breeds negativity”, and what positive mantras were all about. I’ve been using them ever since. I used “I can DO this!” and “my best is good enough” to get though classes and exams. I added the clichés “this too shall pass” and “trust your gut” during my dating years. I wrote “make today matter”, “change the world” and “you are beautiful” on my bathroom mirrors. My children know “your brain believes what your mouth tells it” and “be helpful not hurtful”. They sometimes roll their eyes at me, but that’s Ok.
The thing is, life is tough! We all fight battles everyday with ourselves, our children, our jobs, our schedules, our families, our successes, and our failures. We all sometimes wish we could do things over, make different choices, and create different endings. We wish we could take back a comment or re-enter a room. But we can’t. ALL of us, however, can encourage ourselves (and others) by writing and using our own little mantras to get ourselves moving in the morning, to adjust our attitudes when we need it, or to get through tough moments. “YOU are good enough, smart enough, and doggonit, people like you!” -Stuart Smalley, Saturday Night Live This post was written by Margaret Domnick, Speech Language Pathologist.
