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The Secret Ingredient to Faking it until You Make it: Mantras

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I had a conversation today similar to ones I have often been having in the last couple of months.

Friend: “Wow, Sahar, you look so relaxed!”
Me
: “Wait, what?”
Friend
: “You are always in such a good mood!”
Me
: “Excuse me, what?”
Friend
: “How do you stay so calm?”
Me
: “Are you talking to me?”

That last one is not meant to be rude – I really am perplexed by these friends of mine. You see, I have been going through a lot of pressure lately on many fronts, and I feel anything but always relaxed, cheerful or calm. But apparently, that is the impression I have been giving off, and I think I might have figured out why: because I have been using more and more mantras, and they have actually been helping.

I discovered a couple of years ago the power of using mantras. Digging into older blog entries, I’m surprised that the only mention of this love of mine was in reference to the time, a couple of years ago, when I sprained my ankle. I use mantras all the time but I have been using the following one a lot lately, as it helps me take a step back and deal with things in a healthy way: “Perseverance makes things happen.  Perseverance tempered with humility makes the right things happen. Perseverance tempered in humility placed in the shadow of wisdom makes the right thing happen in the right way.”

I back up these mantras the inspiring stories that hit close to home. As a Bahá’í of Persian background, it might come to no surprise that the story I carry in my heart at all times to remind myself of the power of perseverance tempered with humility placed in the shadow of wisdom is that of the Bahá’ís in Iran. These individuals are persevering in their pursuit of justice. However, they are not doing so in a combative fashion, nor because they think they are better than others. Rather, they firmly believe that justice for all, even themselves, is a fundamental human right. They also firmly believe in respecting the authorities, which is why all recourses taken are legal.

Mantras are awesome – and for now, they are working wonders for me. Hopefully they don’t come with an expiry date!

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3 thoughts on “The Secret Ingredient to Faking it until You Make it: Mantras

  1. I’ve always been amused at the split between being and deciding to be, it gives a little more credibility to the idea that we can define ourselves, I need to remind myself to use these more often myself, I always feel a little better when I do.

    1. It’s true… There is a divide of sort between the two. And I always find it amazing that the divide is easy to conquer and hard at the same time – easy because the answer is “just do it” but just doing it requires perseverance, determination, focus, discipline… And a couple of other things as well 😛

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