Phrases of Comfort: Mantras used to Dismantle the Matrix

It's been almost a year since I graduated college and things have not panned out the way I want them to, but I've come to terms with that. However, along the way I've had to overcome bumps on levels personal, spiritual and emotional. Mantras or what I like to call phrases of comfort are what I've latched onto as verbal blankets to soothe myself whenever I experience any level of anxiety and fear. I use mantras to weaken those emotions because I've come to recognize them as false, unproductive and unwanted except for moments of reflection and stimulus for personal growth. There is something resonate about these phrases for me, echoing truth and exposing illusions I've been conditioned to believe. They are instruments of the conscious rewiring of my faith in myself, the construct of my reality, and the existential pondering of my position in the universe. I realize when I word them this way they sound like they are the keys to exiting the matrix, but for me, they are exactly the equivalence of that.

My mantras are: 'everything is temporary,' 'all is well,' 'destroy the expected,' and 'take what is yours.' They encompass all that I need to hear in moments of insecurity, vulnerability, feeling unmotivated and unambitious, and when life feels unmanageable. They pierce through the fog and ground me back into myself; I become the anchor not that malleable and loose world around me. They are the tether to everything I know myself to be.

The phrase 'everything is temporary' tells me that everything that occurs in this moment, everything that does not resonate with me is temporary. I also use it when the constructs of reality become too much to bear i.e. debts, bills, etc. and remember that they aren't even real and aren't going with me when I leave here (earth). I find that thought so comforting. It trivializes things I'm told or conditioned to be anxious about, which makes them easier to deal with.

The mantra 'all is well' is used when I'm not in the emotional space I want to be and when it seems life is not how I want/envision it to be. So I tell myself 'all is well' because all really is, even if I can't see it in that moment. This phrase helps me shift and anchor my perception into the now and not the nonexistent future where 'all' will be well, because it has to be well now in order for that to be.

My newest mantra is 'destroy the expected.' If there is one thing I know about myself is that I'll always do the right thing for me and not what is expected of me. I don't want to compromise for less than I deserve or shrink myself to be something that I am not because of people's perceived expectations of me. I have little patience for dishonesty directed at me, especially when I'm the source of it. I use this mantra when I'm considering to do something or committing to something that would make "sense" in a false way, meaning, following the path we're told we want to have. I know it isn't what I want, but society has a way of making it difficult to go after what you desire. You find emotional grenades sprinkled along the path of indecision, blowing up and spraying smokes of guilt, anxiety, fear, and doubt in your face when you deviate from the "intended" path. I'd rather sit in a tank and roll over each of the grenades before ever subscribing to that kind of manipulation and conditioning. It isn't easy, but it's right for me.

'Take what is yours' is the equivalent of 'just do it!" for me. It's the mantra I use when I'm hesitant about doing something or feel like I'm not good enough to have it (what I want). It's the motivator mantra, the phrase that tells me to 'f' the fear and do it because you can and you'll be great at doing it. 'Take what is yours' is my push to engage with the world, to explore it, to be a part of it as much as being in it.

These are personal to me, as well as the meanings behind them, but if any resonate with you use them or write it down somewhere. Words can be hypnotic, they have the power to latch, sink and dig into you. Sometimes it takes reading something once to have that effect or it may take multiple times. It depends on how you feel about the language and your emotions behind it. If they're going to stick then they need to be powerful to and resonate with you.