This month we’re focusing on mantras and how we can use these powerful phrases to improve our lives and grow our hearts. In the spirit of things, we’ve come up with a meditation for you that focuses on the theme: Be Willing. We love this theme because it offers so many different opportunities; it really allows each person to craft a willingness mantra for what they need on any given day. How powerful is that?!
Before we dive into the meditation, grab a piece of paper and a pen, or whatever you’d like to use to write some notes. Find a comfortable seat or reclined position (lying down), close your eyes, and exhale all the air from your lungs. Now, take a deep breath in through your nose. Exhale to sigh through your mouth. Repeat three times. Sit in silence for a few minutes and let your heart tell you what it’s ready to share aboutBe Willing. Try not to shove any thoughts or emotions down that are uncomfortable or painful. Just breathe.
When you feel all your emotions and thoughts settle, open your eyes, and start to write down everything that came up. Any thoughts on what you are willing to do to make positive changes in your life, write them down. All feelings, positive or negative, about what you’re willing or not willing to do, write them down. It doesn’t have to look pretty or organized. What we want right now is to get everything in your head down onto paper.
Once you’ve jotted everything down, take a look at your paper and see what themes, common phrases or repeated words come up. Circle, highlight or underline them and use them to craft your mantra(s).
Your mantra will start with:I am willing to… and you fill in the rest. Try to keep it positive. This isn’t about making sacrifices. It’s about shedding old skin and slipping into something new, something worn by the person we know we are deep down, and who we want the world to see.
Here’s an example of some mantras we came up with forBe Willing:
I am willing to let go of my fear of failure
I am willing to step outside my comfort zone.
I am willing to let myself experience a loving relationship.
I am willing to let go of my anger towards my sister.
I am willing to be kinder to strangers.
When you have your mantra(s) crafted, find your comfortable seat again and close your eyes (you can open them if you need to peek at your written mantra). Exhale all the air from your lungs. Now, take a deep breath in through your nose. Exhale to sigh through your mouth. Repeat three times. Then begin to recite your mantra in your head. Repeat with every inhale, and with every exhale. If you have multiple mantras you want to use, you can use one breath cycle (inhale and exhale) to repeat one mantra, and the next breath cycle to repeat the next, and so on.
Stay here for at least ten breaths–you will end up repeating your mantra 20 times. You are welcome to stay for longer and continue to repeat your mantra, or sit in silence to soak up all the goodness than came from your meditation.
