What is Paragon Perspective?
I am on an endless journey of learning how to be happier with my current situation or working towards improving it. Paragon Perspective will be centered around the pursuit of being a better version of yourself in order to live a more fulfilled life. My posts will all stem from lessons I've learned through my personal battle with depression or from clients I’ve worked with.
If you’ve experienced any level of depression, you know it doesn’t just go away without any effort. Every second of your life is way too precious to spend simply hoping you’ll be happier. This world is rarely kind enough to grant wishes...
Depression can be completely paralyzing at times. To the extent that many of the things I write about might be impossible on the days when it’s too difficult to even get out of bed… But if you implement some of these on the days when you’re doing a bit better, the impact will carry through the days in which you struggle most.
I will never claim to know everything.
I will just say I’ve been there.
I know how it feels.
And I will do and share anything that might help others escape it.
My first post will be about creating your Mantra. I hope you enjoy it.
Utilizing a Morning “Mantra"
I have a very toxic and abusive relationship with my alarm clock and mornings in general... but I am getting better!
One of my biggest projects of 2019 has been to create a morning routine and getting out of bed with my first alarm. So whatever I decide to add to my morning routine, has to be so beneficial that it outweighs my apparent love of continuous, 5-minute naps.
To even my own surprise, one of the things that I ended up adding was a morning “mantra.” As a result, I have seen my motivation and productivity increase, and the number of times I hit snooze, decrease.
My goal in writing this is to walk you through how I got past my preconceived notions to try it out, and get you to give your own personalized mantra a shot.
(For a shorter read, click here to go straight to creating your mantra, skipping the persuasion/history portions)
What exactly are mantras?
From a linguistics standpoint, the word mantra is made from the Sanskrit: man- "to think" and -tra meaning, tool. Which literally means "instrument of thought.”
I will be going over what the strictest form of interpretation is, as well as the way we tend to use it in western culture.
Mantras originated thousands of years ago and were viewed as powerful linguistic devices for deepening ones thought or developing an enlightened mind. They were often words or short phrases that would be repeated as an aid to meditation or devotion and to bring about the desired effect. Alongside the meaning of the mantra, the pronunciation and intonation were crucial. (Think of your most recent yoga class, there’s a very specific way in which you say “Aum,” right?) When mantras spread to Buddhism (and China, which prioritized written language more), the act of copying texts became a refined spiritual practice. Mantras continued to spread to other religions under different names and forms, with the most common ones being known as the Lords Prayer and Hail Mary.
The most recent reiteration of Mantras is their utilization within The Law of Attraction. This seems to follow much of the same formatting, but with a few significant differences.
Law of Attraction mantras are recited to the self and to the universe to bring about the desired change, rather than to a specific deity. This is somewhat similar to Buddhism except for two crucial components that have contributed to its rapid growth and popularity in western culture. One being that you don’t need to claim a specific religion or change your lifestyle to adhere to any type of rules. The second being its allowance of creating mantras centered around desire rather than growth, especially in the area of financial prosperity.
As with any reincarnation, each version drifts further and further away from the original. For this reason, I will reemphasize that I use mantra in the loosest sense of the word. As an “instrument of thought” that we can add to our repertoire of techniques to create a happier version of ourselves.
Why I was so resistant towards trying it, and what logic finally convinced me?
I tend to consider myself to be a critic of everything, but with the goal of being open to anything. With mantras, I had 3 things I needed to get over and/or rationalize:
1. Understanding that I could modify the practice to fit what I needed in my life.
The thing with anything involving self-growth is that we have millions upon millions of variables that make us who we are. With almost everything, if we want it to match us and what we need in that moment, we have to customize it to who we are and what we need.
When I looked into traditional mantras, they were made up of short phrases repeated. For me, they always felt like something someone else was telling me to say, so they never had any true personal meaning, thus defeating the purpose of speaking to myself. Now changing the format of something repeated for centuries is either blasphemy... or innovation. I’ll let you decide which. You have several options as to how to go about your mantra, and I do not expect you to copy me or my technique. I just ask that you integrate something, some type of change into your morning, that helps you start the day in a more beneficial way for you.
2. The fact that it seemed silly and like a waste of time.
Time is the greatest commodity we have and dedicating time towards a new habit or routine is something that should not be taken lightly. Time in the morning, when I’m almost always running late, is even more valuable. Why would I spend the few precious spare minutes I have, talking out loud to myself?
Simple. Because I will spend the next 17 hours that I am awake talking to myself internally, and most of the time, I have limited control over what I tell myself. When unguided, my mind tends to favor reminders of times I failed, feelings of guilt or inadequacy, or any slew of things that contribute in no way towards my dreams or my well being.
If you took the time to look someone you loved in the eyes, and tell them the 5 things you thought they needed to hear most for where they are at in their life, would you view it as a waste of time?
Why are you not worthy of the same attention from yourself?
Give this a shot for at least 14 days. And if it doesn’t work, then you wasted the amount of time you would have spent watching one episode of a new show on Netflix, if that. But if it does work, you might have found a way to change the direction of the remaining 23 hours and 55 minutes in your day, from the 5 you almost didn’t commit.
People don’t hesitate when they speak of selling their souls for their dreams.
All I’m asking you to do is speak positively to yourself for a few minutes a day.
3. Its religious origins.
I was raised deeply religious and as with most belief systems, it isn’t exactly smiled upon if you drift slightly into another systems’ stratosphere. So with everything that I teach, my goal is to pull it into a very neutral zone. You can’t grow if you’re creating guilt or inner turmoil. However, if you want to practice mantras exactly as they do in Hinduism or Buddhism, by all means, go ahead. I would be happy to assist you in finding a method and additional resources that align with your preference or religious beliefs as those formats will be drastically different than what I am recommending here.
While historically mantras are meant to be relayed to some type of energy or power in order to produce results, we will be using our personalized mantra as a way to simply set our intention for the day.
As a mission statement for our life, and a promise to ourselves we set up a form of self-accountability. On most days, we tend to go on autopilot, letting our routine and our subconscious take the helm. Allowing them to steer us towards whatever direction they see fit. Often though, we don’t like where we end up, but since we’re already there, we don’t know how to get back to somewhere we’d rather emotionally be.
Saying your mantra in the morning does not need to be a prayer, it is reminding yourself what you want your destination to be. Even if you lose control of your direction during the day, as long as this control becomes part of your routine, you will slowly start realizing more and more frequently when you are veering off course.
What is My Morning Mantra?
To create your mantra, you will need to answer some deeply personal questions. But since I am asking you to trust me in taking the time to write yours, I will trust you with mine. Here it is:
"It is (today's date),
and today I will not compromise my dreams or enjoyment of life to my paranoia of what other people think.
I have people that rely on me, and I will do everything in my power today, to make sure I don't let them down at any point in the future.
I am my own greatest critic, and today I will present him with a version of myself that even he applauds.
I have only so much time on this Earth, and I will enjoy it for the symphony it is, without focusing on the notes I disfavor.
I will be healthy.
I will be happy.
I will be fulfilled.
I am proud of the version of myself I am creating."
How I Wrote Mine?
Even if you never recite your mantra, writing it is an incredibly eye-opening and therapeutic exercise. I tend to have a lot to say, so when I was writing mine, I couldn’t exactly keep it to one phrase. So I created a series of questions that covered the most important areas of growth I wanted to address first thing in the morning:
What is the biggest mental obstacle you face daily?
When you set out to do something new, what debate goes on internally to talk you out of it? During those moments when you feel like you should be happy, what runs through your mind? What do you find yourself excessively worrying about? Now create a statement that addresses what you’ve come up with and put it as if it’s an obstacle you will overcome.
What's your number one motivation that keeps you going?
If you’re still reading this, it's safe to assume you have some type of goal, whether it's emotional, physical, or financial. Work in any of these areas is fatiguing. What will keep you from staying on the easy and less fulfilling path? Try to dig deep for this one- whatever your immediate answer is, try to figure out why you answered that way and integrate that into your mantra.
When it comes to self-growth, what is your goal for today?
Quite simply, what would put you at peace? What statement, if you said it honestly, would make you proud of your day? This could be a huge goal or a small one; as always, it's up to you and what you need.
What is your biggest fear, and how can you change your perspective of it?
This is a rough one and it’s going to take a lot of honesty and searching. You might even have to start with a smaller fear and build up from there. But find something, and answer it as if you were answering it for a 5-year-old. Make the solution as simple as possible and just go with that.
Conclude with a statement of validation of what you are working towards and what you are doing.
I decided to wrap mine up with one last punch. A statement that I want to be able to confidently say to myself, but one that still makes me feel uncomfortable because I’m not to the point where I fully believe in it (yet). One of the biggest parts of this exercise is making yourself a little bit uncomfortable to deviate from patterns that have you where you have been. It may be hard to say or include certain phrases in your mantra because you don’t feel worthy of their meaning. Therein lies the issue and exactly what we are going to change.
Once you’ve written out all your answers, go back and add some poetic flair to it. Make this entire statement one that you are proud to have written, and that you are proud to read and recite on a daily basis.
How I recite my mantra to make it effective?
I usually time my mantra after I have gotten ready for the day, but before I start my real tasks. It’s gotten to the point where it’s like putting on pants, a necessary step before stepping out into the world.
I have a dry erase board above my mirror that I have my mantra on. Depending on the day, I’ll either simply read it, or I might even rewrite it if I feel I need it to have more impact on that day.
I will assume a power persona (think, the way you would act in an interview or first date) and make sure that my attention is undivided.
I will then start audibly reciting my mantra. My goal is to only recite it, in its entirety, once. However, if I stutter, or if I find my mind has wandered, I start over until I can recite it perfectly with my complete attention.
When I finish the flawless recital, I force myself to give myself a moment where I look at myself without judgment, without criticism, just a moment of belief. Belief in everything I just said and my direction in the day. The first time I tried this I only lasted about 3 seconds… Since then, it has come to be the part I am most excited about. Eventually, you practice enough that you’re not looking at yourself and picking away at your insecurities. You stop picking away at the self-inflicted wounds that never have enough time to heal before you open them up again. When you are finally able to look yourself in the eyes in that mirror, and you can give yourself a moment of belief, it truly allows you to recover from the accumulation of mental fatigue and move confidently forward.
How has this helped me?
I’ve been touching on all the emotional benefits throughout this post, so here I’ll just list the measurable outcomes that I’ve experienced.
First things first, I am writing my first ever blog post on this very subject. Something I have talked myself out of doing for years. I am also putting numerous other things into motion that I’ve always found a reason not to act on. I’m seeing my excuses for what they are and moving beyond them. I’m currently wrapping this article up at my first “Dreams and Ambitions” meet-up when my goal has been to do something like this for years. Throughout the day, when I’m starting to drift off, a relevant portion of my mantra will always pop into my mind and help me refocus. I’m taking risks and chances in business that I would have doubted myself too much to even consider in the past.
I still have rough days… But every week seems to be a little better than the previous one. And it’s been a while since I’ve had what I felt was a “wasted” day.
Simply put, this has been yet another step towards fulfillment and happiness that didn’t cost a cent- just time, energy, and faith.
There have been times where I felt silly, there have been times where I was just going through the motions, but there have also been times when I cried because of how much I needed it.
Concluding thoughts?
As with anything, you won’t know whether or not something works until you try it. There was once a time you’d never tried pizza, but once you did it was a game changer right? (RIP to all the fitness goals killed by pizza.)
Feel free to give my methods a shot, but don’t be scared to modify them if you come up with something that benefits you more. Remember, this and anything you do should be about YOUR fulfillment.
If you struggle with writing your mantra, feel free to join me for one of my Dreams and Ambitions Meet-ups and I would be happy to help you write yours.
Lastly,
I sincerely appreciate you and your time.
I hope you take steps towards the happiness you deserve.
And thank you, my friends, for reading.
- Logan Torres
Sources:
1) New World Encyclopedia : Mantra
2) The Science Behind Finding Your Mantra and How to Practice It Daily