There have been times when I felt very low on my confidence. At other times I felt very vulnerable. And then there were occasions when a certain fear grips me…that nothing is going right in my life. The future seems so bleak! Also, the same feeling does surface sometimes while going on for an important corporate presentation or an important client meeting or while having an appointment with the Doctor. How do I overcome such vulnerable moments?
How can one overcome such vulnerable moments?
Well, I have developed a ‘simple mantra’ which I chant in my mind during such times. Those of you who are wondering what does a mantra mean, well the dictionary meanings of a mantra are many:-
- (Originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) Mantra is a word or sounds repeated to aid concentration in meditation.
- Mantra comes from a Sanskrit word meaning a “sacred message or text, charm, spell, counsel.”
- A Mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit.
- Mantra definition is – a mystical formula of invocation or incantation (as in Hinduism);
- Mantra definition, a word or formula, as from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.
- A mantra is a sacred word, sound or phrase, usually in Sanskrit, which is believed to have spiritual and psychological power.
…..and so many more!
I chant this mantra for a few minutes and I start feeling better! I regain my confidence levels and things do not look bleak anymore. I get positive vibes and a positive outlook about me and about my life in general. This mantra can be a small prayer or just a word or just the sound ‘Oum’. Believe me, it works. I don’t know the science behind it but it does work.
The other day I was called in for an office meeting and as I entered the board room, I saw many bigwigs of the organization sitting across the round table. There was a projector that was on and it showed a slide with some data and graphs. I was asked to join them while they continued with their discussion. I was as nervous as hell! I thought ‘God! You could not find a better way to humiliate me?! What the hell am I going to speak here…in front of all these seniors across business verticals?’ Then I remembered my mantra and started chanting it in my mind while staring at the presentation….suddenly I realized that I am familiar with at least one graph and one set of data being there on the slide. I started chanting my mantra more religiously while still concentrating on the slide and the data. I could weave a story now around that familiar set of data….yup! I started feeling confident and began smiling now! Though when I was asked to speak it was about something else about which I had good knowledge. I spoke and spoke well.
Ah, the mantra did work for me. There was all possibility that I could have made a fool for myself had I been continued to be nervous! That is why I say there is a psychological aspect of the philosophy of mantra. There is science too!
Have you also gone through such situations and times in your life and do you have any mantra that helped you feel better? Does having a mantra help?
DISCOVER YOUR MANTRA!
Cheers!