Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1977, A mantra (spiritual mantra for our purposes) is a mystical formula of invocation or incantation. A Sanskrit sacred counsel or formula.
Daily we operate from a spiritual mantra that was either put upon us, or that we have developed for ourselves over our lifetime. Often, when that spiritual mantra does not work to our highest good, it can be very difficult to rewrite that formula. But if we are to move forward spiritually, we must. We must break the looping message we are operating under and make a new one that helps us move forward. This is the basis for Tony Robbins entire, lucrative career. In his early years he was truly brilliant, and this is one of the things that he said he did to a woman at a convention - broke her looping message - her mantra.
She came up to him whining about her husband and how awful their marriage was and carrying on, and he, Tony stopped her the first time, and then asked her to tell him again. She did, and he got her pattern down, which was that at a certain point, her body language would go to a pitiful stance and she would repeat the exact same words more quietly and pitifully as she reinforced in her mind how sad her life was, hence her mantra,. So that time, he threw a glass of water in her face. Of course at a convention, she was shocked, and he calmly said, "I'm sorry, I missed that, please go ahead, tell me again".
Somewhat shocked, she started at the same beginning, almost verbatim, and she did the exact same thing, confused, but it was Tony Robbins, and so she got back in her rhythm and tried again. When she got to that same place where the pitiful stance took hold, he threw a glass of water in her face again, and said, "I'm sorry, go ahead . . . you were saying." Still confused, she tried to tell the story again, but when she got to her pitiful stance place, she had a different anticipation that time of what was coming, couldn't finish because she was too busy laughing. He asked her to continue, and finally she said, "I can't remember it."
That is when I knew that Tony Robbins had truly figured out a lot of stuff. He had in a single session and a few minutes, broken her long-standing pattern, and he said that she reported that she was never able to return to it because when she tried, she would start laughing uncontrollably. Think of the difference that made in her relationship with her husband - just the laughing alone! Change to me is the primary key to effective communication with others, forward movement through pain and difficulties, and the mechanism toward rewriting your own mantra - your self talk, so that you can get new results. But you must get your own ego out of the way first. In this lady's case, she was speaking with the GREAT Tony Robbins, so she did not fight against something that she might have in other circumstances, like if the GREAT Eva Ravenwood had thrown water in her face. Bet that would not have gone the same, huh? Tony had leverage on her belief system. Eva would likely be in a cat fight!
We must identify the old one, and then find a new spiritual mantra so we know what is guiding us, then rewrite it, and change the way we operate. Too often I find, people try to break the old Mantra without designing a new one, and honing it to make sure it is a right one for the moment. If you ever smoked, telling yourself you won't smoke anymore ever because it is bad and makes you a bad, weak person to do so, is not nearly as effective as saying "I'm gonna put this pack of cigarettes on the top of the refrigerator, and today, because I am wise, I will try not to have one, but if I decide to tomorrow, I know where they are." Our mantra will change with time as we grow, but it is important to find a good workable one for the present growth spurt. Even more importantly, even if you can't fully define or find the old mantra, if you write a new positive one and let it lead you, you'll still get new results.
Find your new mantra, and change your life! Say it over and over again till we can no longer remember the old dysfunctional one, hopefully, because we are laughing too hard to do so. That's the trick!
