Welcome to the happy healthy hustle podcast, where we explore the intersection of health, happiness, and productivity.
I'm your host, Christiane, and I'm super excited to be here with you today.
In this podcast, we discuss ways to improve your life, and today's episode is all about finding your personal one-minute mantra.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or just need a quick mental reset, a one-minute mantra can help you refocus and center yourself.
So what exactly is a one-minute mantra? A mantra is a word or phrase that is repeated to yourself, often used as a meditational mindfulness technique.
So a one-minute mantra is condensed, and it's something that you can recite in just one minute, as the name says, to make it super quick and accessible throughout the day.
So let's find a one-minute mantra, and I have five steps that will get us a one-minute mantra at the end of this fabulous podcast today.
So the first step in finding your personal one-minute mantra is to identify what do you need at the moment.
Do you need to feel more confident, more relaxed, more energized?
Think about what you're feeling and what you need to hear to help you move forward.
Second, now that you have an idea of what you need, it's time to brainstorm.
So some possible mantras will get you exactly what you're looking for.
So those phrases could be sentences that really resonate with you or affirmations that reflect on what you want to feel or achieve.
So, for instance, maybe you need some motivation.
A good mantra could be, I am strong and capable, or maybe you need to feel more relaxed.
A good mantra could be, I am calm and centered, or maybe you need to get more energized.
Another mantra would be I'm focused and productive.
So the third step is now to try out the different mantras.
So the way that I think about a mantra is you go into a store, and you have a specific idea about some shoes that will be really useful for you.
So you go into the store, you're trying them on, and you kind of see which ones of these feel good.
That's exactly the same with a mantra. It needs to feel good. It needs to touch you.
So a mantra that works for you might not work for somebody else and vice versa.
At the same time, just like with shoes, a mantra can really grow on you.
So when you are in the store, and you're trying those shoes on and you think, oh, they just need to break in, it's usually not that way with shoes.
You come home, and you put them on, you're like, oh gosh, I shouldn't have bought them.
The same thing with a mantra. You try it on, and if you feel it's not quite it.
It's probably just not perfect.
So the good thing about the mantra is you can keep on tweaking it until it feels just you and authentic.
So now, in that third step, we're trying on, and we are trying out different mantras, and we see which one feels powerful and effective.
Remember, the mantra should feel true and meaningful.
So don't worry about using the right words or phrases because whatever the mantra does to you, which is evoking some type of emotion or feelings, will be perfect.
So now that you have your one-minute mantra, it's time to practice it.
So the goal of a mantra is that you keep repeating it to yourself.
And to practice this, maybe find a quiet space, so you won't be interrupted; close your eyes, take a few deep breaths.
Now repeat your mantra for one minute, focusing on the words and the feelings they evoke.
So here are a few tips.
The most important thing is with a mantra that you figure out, okay, so what's my attention or goal?
Before you start writing out any words or your mantra, it's really important to know what you want to focus on.
So let's say it is inner peace or self-confidence, maybe you write that at the top of your page, and then you write down words that you personally feel resonate with that particular goal or intention.
The other important thing is, is to give it short and simple.
If you only have one minute, your mantra should be short and super easy to remember. So I usually just choose four or five words in really simple and concise language.
The third important tip is using positive language.
So your mantra should be framed in a positive way, which means that whatever gets some negative emotion in your body, you don't want even want to think about those. So don't use those negative words; keep it positive.
The fourth tip is we're always using present tense.
If you write your mantra in the present tense, it's as if you already have what you want. And it's basically just giving you the feeling that it's positioning, anchoring, and affirming it to yourself.
The fifth tip is you have to repeat the mantra. The purpose of a mantra is to keep it repeating it to yourself. So make sure it flows and it's easy for you to say repetitively.
So if let's say an example, I am strong, confident, and capable. I trust in my abilities and believe in myself.
Every challenge is an opportunity for growth, and I brace it with open arms. I'm grateful for all the blessings in my life and approach each day with a positive attitude.
So that might be longer than what you want to remember, but there might be keywords in there that you could use when you write your own mantra.
Again, don't worry if your mind wanders when you do your little brainstorming session of coming up with keywords for your mantra or if it feels really challenging to stay focused.
That's just actually part of the exercise. Like any skill, using a mantra takes a little bit of practice and repetition. And then, once you are in it, it will get easier and easier over time.
So the more you use your one-minute mantra, the easier it's going to become. And the quicker you will get the feeling you're trying to evoke.
So whether that's the feeling of calm, confidence, or energy because your mind and your body is kind of tuned in already to what the mantra does to you.
I kind of compare this to a dog, and there is this famous researcher, Pavlow, that used a bell to signal to the dog that food is on the way.
So the bell would be rung, food would be brought out, and the dog would be so excited that, all right, there is some yummy treat coming up.
So eventually, the dog was so used to hearing that bell ring that this researcher Pavlo determined, all right, so maybe now the dog got so in tune with the tone of the bell that if I remove the food altogether, the dog is going to think there's going to be food coming and that's really how it is.
And, of course, I'm using the words thinking.
It's basically just a conditioning will be the same with your body.
So when you hear your mantra, you're going to think positive things are going to happen, and your body is going to trust itself that this mantra will lead to energy or calmness or whatever your intention is.
One thing that I really love about the mantras is that they're super versatile. So you could use mantras in a lot of different situations, whether you need to be calm, whether you maybe have a big meeting and you just need to calm down your nerves,
whether you need some energy and maybe in the afternoon, you're really tired, and you need some mantra that picks you up again, or you just need to take a quick mental break during a busy day. So mantras are there.
And, of course, along with the fact how you write one is already kind of a fun exercise.
And at the same time, what I love about mantras is if you're feeling they're not working, as a totally easy way to adjust them, so don't be afraid to switch it up because we are constantly changing our needs and our feelings change to could even be from day to day.
So it's all right if you experiment with different mantras and you see what resonates with you at that moment.
I will give you a few more examples here of some mantras, and I will, of course also share my personal mantra with you.
So my personal mantra is give it five minutes. And I think that given that I am a happy healthy hustler.
The five minutes is usually what really helps me in the moment.
It could be that maybe I'm in a meeting and there might be a stressful situation and I'm thinking all right in five minutes. I'm probably going to feel better maybe this shall pass as well.
It could even be that maybe I'm teaching a workout class and there is a particularly challenging move for exercise.
I've even voiced that to the participants in my classes where I say all right you've done harder things for five minutes. We can do this for five minutes.
And at the end of the class you're going to feel stronger for the fact that we did this together. And if you think about it five minutes that's really nothing.
So here with my participants that these five minutes whether that's an exercise whether that's going for a quick walk whether that's a meditation reading a book whether you are cooking a meal or making yourself just a yummy little treat five minutes will accumulate.
Five minutes of self care time will accumulate during the day if you do this five times it leads up to the 25 minutes and that already sounds pretty amazing. But maybe as a chunk of time to intimidating to carve out the time for.
So why my one minute mantra is give it five minutes. And I mean whether that's a task you love to do or a task you are afraid to tackle that usually helps me and break it down into more feasible chunks of time.
Another mantra that I personally love is I can't control everything. And I am a perfectionist. Sometimes I'm looking at something and I just have to keep telling myself this mantra, I can't control the situation so I just have to let it go.
And that's good because you sometimes need that voice or that mantra to give you the okay with a job that you are not going to aim for perfection you're going to be okay with the quality that whatever this particular function led to because you couldn't control it otherwise.
And I even tell people in my classes whether that's a workout class or whether that's on campus. I sometimes tell them I give you permission to listen to your body and be okay with whatever your particular performance today is.
Whether that's telling yourself, I can't control everything. Or today I am feeling tired and I can't control that my body maybe needs to rest. You need to listen to yourself and tune in. And it's sometimes hard to ignore that.
Because you are feeling tired but at the same time once you become more tuned and your mantras could help you with that. The mantras could even be the voice that a good friend would be that tells you, Alright, gotta keep going.
But when you're feeling you need a break, you maybe should back up a little bit.
So I look at a mantra as also a way that you become your own best friend.
You want to use a mantra as that sentence that a best friend would tell you when you need that best friend the most.
And for me, my family always gives me motivational little sentences, but of course they're not there at all times.
So I use my mantras as a way to create a little buffer between stressful situations and hearing like a voice of something that really resonates with me.
Alright, so maybe last one that I feel is really, really important. I deserve three things and that could be three moments of self care. Maybe I deserve to read a good book. I deserve to eat a chocolate piece today.
I deserve to go on a walk. You deserve these things. You don't need to be limiting your self care. In fact, leading a life of restrictions will actually increase your stress level beyond what it should be.
So I always say to my children, let's add things into our life. Let's add fruits and vegetables. Let's add treats here or there. Let's add walks.
We don't need to feel we're restricting anything because that feeling leads overall to feeling like I'm living my life short and I'm on the passing lane where in fact I just want to kind of be listening to what I'm needing on that day.
So I deserve these three things, gives you the opportunity to grow, explore new things, but at the same time it also gives you a trajectory of life, maybe more meaning.
And that is also something that I feel that sometimes we are just kind of in a rut day by day. We are looking at this, okay, so this is just like feeling like last week. Remind yourself with the mantra, I deserve these three things.
But it might add a little bit more intention to your day and might give it a little bit more meaning. And it might even be something that you usually don't do, right? So maybe you're trying out new things and I deserve to try new locations in my travel.
So go for whatever makes you feel good, make that mantra connect to what you're personally trying to achieve. And I would actually love to hear your mantras.
So why don't you go ahead, share some of the mantras with me, because to me it's always fun to see what you come up with, your creativity is always amazing to me and it also really sparks to me a little bit feeling of creation and how we are all our own little creative outputs.
And I would love to hear your mantras. So that's it for today's episode of the happy healthy hassle podcast. I hope you enjoyed the discussion about finding your one minute mantra.
And I hope it's been helpful in giving you just a quick and easy tool that you can use whenever you need to center, energize or refocus. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll catch you next time.
Bye bye.