What's Your Mantra?

Do you have a mantra? Is there a word or phrase that you call up when you get in a tight spot? Do you take time to listen to your heart when it's hurting? Or scared? Or confused?

I'm not talking about sitting in the Lotus position and chanting "Om" for hours every day. Not everybody can go there, even when they think they want to. I admire folks who can do that sorta thing. I'm not one of them. I find sitting very still for long periods of time quite excruciating. Also, I don't think it's necessary for every Being to do such things to find their groove. I think it's more about...

Finding what works for you.

For those of you who've been here a while, you already know that my mantra is

Joy is a choice.

I have used this mantra for many years in order to remind myself that I need not stay anywhere that feels like shit. It's a choice. 

Joy

Happiness

Agony

Despair

All of them, choices.

I'm not saying we won't feel those things sometimes. The sad parts are an important piece of the fabric that makes up what we call "Life". You gotta have some Ick so you'll appreciate the Joy even more than you would without it.

That does NOT mean you have to stay mired in it. 

It just means, you take the so-called good with the so-called bad and once you've seen the contrast, you can move on.

Choices.

So I got to thinking about the choices we make and whether or not we have the tools to make the choices that will most benefit us. Like whether or not to buy that bunch of tulips that make you so happy even though you've only got $23 to your name. Or whether or not to take that puppy home when you're already stretched so tight you don't know how you're going to put gas in your car. Or accepting an invitation from someone you barely know. Or getting rid of all those clothes you haven't worn in years. 

These are minuscule, you might think. But maybe not so much. Maybe it is precisely these kinds of choices that make our lives joyful .... or NOT. Maybe it is the little things that matter most. Maybe, just maybe, if we have some kind of mantra to carry around with us, we will stop for those three seconds and think about how whatever choice we're faced with makes us feel.

When I wrote Whispers, I didn't realize just how much I relied on my Intuition. I wrote the book as an exercise for my Self. A way to review the magick of my Life so I could remember just how blessed I really am. By the time I was finished, I saw that even the horror that I was facing at that time could not diminish the truly marvelous path I had taken. 

In short, it was the beginning of a brandy new way for me to live.

Hence, the mantra.

Joy is a choice.

Yes. And I do believe that if you don't have one (a mantra, that is), it might behoove you to find one that suits. It doesn't have to be "holy". It doesn't have to be "deep". It could be as simple as TRUST or STOP or YES. But whatever it is, it would be there to remind you that your life is your own; the choices you make are yours. Nobody lives in your skin. And nobody gets to tell you what you "should" or "shouldn't" do, or be, or say. 

Mantras are cool like that.

So....

What's your mantra?