Family Ideas

What is a Mantra?

man·tra (mān’trə) n. (1) A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities. (2) A commonly repeated word or phrase.

What is your Mantra?

Here is an example from my Sister-in-law. She is a gifted writer and has created a beautiful Mantra that she says it to herself a lot when she is in on a walk or in the shower. It’s a quick way to regain perspective and short enough to remember easily and precisely.

I’m happy.  I’m healthy.  I’m terrific.  I am a gifted, capable person.
I am a mother who loves her children and who seeks God’s guidance, for He has promised blessings temporal and spiritual to those who keep His commandments.  I can do GREAT things because I know He loves me, and He will help me succeed.

The most important elements to her are:
1. Who I am, not just who I believe myself to be in my best moments, but the reminder of my essential value (and potential) for those times when I don’t feel any too great about me.
2. What I believe.  The most fundamental elements of my current personal testimony are stated short and sweet in here.
3. What I want for myself.  This should naturally follow the first two, but self-doubt and other negative emotions are effective saboteurs and I abandon my dreams quite easily…nothing fancy, mind you.  Mostly stuff like having a happy, stable family.  I kept it simple so I would believe it as I said it to myself.
4. The last part, and a very important element is giving credit to Heavenly Father so that when things do go well, you’re sure to recognize His hand in it.  That comes to play even in small ways, like the word “gifted.”  As I use it, I know that my capabilities are a gift from God.
Choose your words very intentionally. “Mother” is a loaded word for me.  It’s a responsibility and a privilege.
I chose, “I KNOW He loves me” and “He has promised” on purpose. They are definitive terms.  It is my reminder to me of all the moments of personal witness that are too easily forgotten…you get the idea.  Using proactive words was a stretch for noncommittal me.

Good luck writing your own Mantras! Please share them!!