I Like Mantras: Think. Everything is Beautiful
By Billy | October 16, 2009
A dear friend of mine one day suggested I find a mantra. I had been trying to think of one for a while. Some ideas popped in my head but sounded forced, cold, not-accurate.
“There’s not a spot that God is not.”
“Let it be.”
Things like these blew around the caverns in my mind while I waited.
I seem to talk to myself most when walking down hill.
I can’t come up with a mantra because I don’t know how I feel yet, I think to myself.
That’s a pretty good start!
I can’t come up with a mantra. I don’t know how to feel about things.
I can refine that thought to this.
Things are uncertain. Decisions are difficult.
That is a little pessimistic, non-prescriptive, abrupt. I want my mantra to be encouraging, helpful, action-encouraging, and whole/complete/encompassing.
Though things are difficult, you can only work with what you have.
This still labels a problem to overcome. A gypsy woman I know is the best at this: don’t just not focus on the negatives, actually only see the positives.
“You can only do everything that you can do,” is a piece of advice I have handed out liberally to friends who feel useless when trying to fix things. If you’re doing all that you can, be happy with that. I have internalized that, and I choose to in-corpor-ate that into my mantra.
(I really, *really* like hyphenating words. In-corp-erate. I want the concept of contented-ness with the situation to literally become part of the body (corpus) of my mantra, which I will in-corp-erate into my life (and my being). The idea of contentedness with abilities will become part of me as I carry this mantra like I do any part of my body. I am content as much as I have two hands.)
I like this, but it’s still very limiting. There must be a way to put it such that I am speaking truthfully and positively about the situation. Let’s be affirmative.
Just do what you need to do.
Yes. But there’s more. This hardly captures my feelings about “mistakes.” I’ll refine this to say,
Everything will be OK if you do what you need to.
Scratch that.
Everything will be OK when you do what feels right.
In fact,
Everything will be OK regardless of whether you do the right thing or not. Things are OK all the time, as long as you keep trying, you can’t ask for anything more.
If everything is already OK because we can’t do anything to fix what we’re doing our best to do, even if we’re not working to our full potential, we’re already doing OK.
Everything will be OK. Everything IS OK. Keep trying, though. Things being OK isn’t an excuse to stop trying.
Things are MORE THAN just OK. Life is great. Especially if you keep trying. I mean, complaining or worrying isn’t going to make it any better, so worrying is a non-option, so joyfulness is the only legitimate response to have to the world.
Things are BEAUTIFUL. Keep at it.
Not just things, but EVERYTHING. Keep at it? Keep at what? You can’t not keep at “it,” provided you are existent. Besides, if you’re busy thinking everything is beautiful, you’re going to keep trying to better things.
“Everything is beautiful.”
Buuuut that’s sometimes unrealistic. Sometimes I don’t remember that everything is beautiful.
“THINK! Everything is beautiful!”
There. That’s my mantra these days.
Think. This reminds me to actively think about it. Remember… You REALLY believe that everything is beautiful.
Also, Think. If you see something as non-beautiful, THINK. Do something about it. Do what? Whatever you think is right. No pressure.
If you mess up, things are beautiful, so no worries.
If you think things are beautiful so there’s no need to do anything productive, remember why you think things are beautiful. It involves effort.
It’s circular. It’s encouraging. It’s reliable. It’s optimistic. It’s beautiful.
This is my mantra. Think. Everything is beautiful.
Topics: Philosophy, This is my life | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2010 at 12:25 am
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