Meditating with Mantras – utilising the power of intention {monday meditation}

Thank you to Belinda for continuing to help us find solace and serenity in amidst our busy lives. This is the third post in our ‘Monday Meditation’ series in October. If you’ve missed our previous editions, you can find Belinda’s first post here and second post here. ~ Annie x

Ever experienced the feeling of being stuck? Stuck in your thoughts, stuck in a way of living that’s not working for you or just stuck in a job, a place or relationship you’ve outgrown?

It’s a powerless feeling, isn’t it? Often when you’re stuck in just one area of your life it can end up affecting all the other areas of your life and your overall happiness. As humans we can have a tendency to subconciously focus our energy on the things that are not going so well, rather than all the other areas that are ticking along quite nicely.

So, how do we change the things that we feel stuck in without dwelling on them and becoming negative?

One way is through meditating on mantras and using the power of positive energy and thinking to move some of our ‘stuckness’ and shift our perspective on some of our inner turmoils and outer problems.

I’ve only just recently started to work more with mantras in my personal meditation practice and have found for me it has been a really effective way to work on some areas in my life where I feel stuck.

I find that focusing on a positive mantra can help me centre while I’m meditating and then be more aware of how I want to be and behave when I’m not actively meditating. A mantra can be a phrase or a word that means something to you – the simpler the better. For example, if you’d like to inject more calm into your daily life, your mantra may be something like ‘I am calm’. This is your anchoring phrase, the phrase you repeat in your mind, while focusing on your breath. You may also want to put it up in places you can see around your house to remind you, particularly when the kids are driving you crazy and it’s not yet 9am.

To come up with your mantra, have a think about the things you’d like to attract in your life rather than what you want to remove, as the more positively you can word your mantra the better. So, instead of saying ‘Stop acting out of frustration’ you might want to say ‘I am ease and grace’.

Personal mantras can be very powerful and they’ve definitely helped me feel less stuck this year and move towards living a mindful and happy life. There are a whole heap of sanskrit mantras, which is the language of yoga, that are very powerful in shifting energy and thinking too. I’ve done some of these in yoga class and online meditations and find them very effective (if very hard to pronounce at times!). The simplest of these is chanting Om – which is said to remind us of our connection to the divine and each other.

I’d really love to hear what you think of mantras and if you’ve used them successfully in your life. Feel free to share yours if you feel comfortable. If you enjoyed this post, I’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below, pop over to the blog or join me on facebook, twitter or instagram.

Belinda is a journalist, yoga-addict and mother to two boys, always searching for ways to live a purposeful and stress-free life. Join her over at her blog Save Mum’s Sanity in celebrating the perfectly imperfect journey of motherhood.