My Mantra for 2023

I am not one to have mantras or quotes for a year, but this year something popped up and actually stood out in my minds eye. If there is one thing I want to remind myself through 2023 it would be "Light-heartedness". I usually write on heavy topics, topics that are aimed at getting right to the heart of tough subjects in life and trying to make sense or workarounds to make life liveable. People do resonate and do get their answers and directions from these and I am ever grateful to God for these inspired downloads and to the readers who encourage me to keep writing. But sometimes in all of this heavy mental lifting, I forget to keep life light and fun. I am not someone who can skim through life, trying to find deeper meaning is like engrained in my system, but the importance of light-heartedness and fun cannot be undermined, to sometimes stop trying to find any meaning and just living life for the sake of it, enjoying the little things in life. Agreed that we are souls on this earth on a journey towards inner evolution but life is also to be stopped, taken in, admired, adored and experienced without expectations of anything grand. Sometimes we need others to awaken the child within that has been put to sleep, what feels like ages ago. Sometimes we meet people or make friends who remind us that we have nothing to prove, that just our company can bring in joy and a reason to smile.

So light-heartedness is my mantra for this year. Now how I plan to achieve this you may ask? Well that would be ironic since planning it would literally suck the joy out of it ;-). I do not plan for anything, I only promise myself that I will keep reminding myself of this word, maybe even take a printout and post it above my desk. Whenever a day feels too busy, too tiring or too low, I will remind myself to not take things to heart, to smile more and take a deep breath, knowing I am taken care of, I am safe, I am exactly where I need to be in life, so what is the point of all the heaviness and taking things personally? I know it will not be easy, but even if am successful 50% of the year, I think it will be worth it.

But light-heartedness alone will not be enough, there needs to be something that brings in hope, something that will be the other pillar to support this endeavour. The only thing that came to mind was unwavering faith. Faith that things are working out exactly as they are supposed to and the end result is for my highest good. A reminder that life is not out there to get me or harm me, life is there to help me evolve in all and any shape or form. Faith that there is a higher power guiding me and that I am not as lost as I sometimes feel I am. Faith that there is no rush, no desperation to reach anywhere, what is meant for me will come to me when the time is right and all I have to do is live with all zest and zeal that I can muster.

Light-heartedness does not mean I will ignore my duties, it does not mean I will not face challenges head-on, it does not mean that I will not take tough decisions. It means that I will stop myself from falling into the trap of depressive thinking or spiral into phases of negation. As humans we all face these phases, where nothing seems to bring back our spirits and life starts feeling like a meaningless routine. But if I wake up each day, setting a mental agenda that today no matter what happens my priority will be to remain buoyant, elastic and even expansive and inclusive in my being then I will remove the innate resistance in the ego to react. Disclaimer: As of now this is just my theory, only as I progress through the year will I know if it sticks, but I somehow have a good feeling about this. All of these feelings of light-heartedness will not feel rooted if it is a superficial polishing of the ego or some buffed up motivational crap you see on an Instagram reel. To identify, reach for and call in these on command, one must first do the radical acceptance exercise I wrote about in the earlier blog post. Sift, sort and clearly see yourself and your life for what it is and completely accept the now, so that you can create the future you want. This exercise will be draining and testing for a short while but when you cross over to the other side, you will see its not that bad. Also remember, this is not a one time activity, this is a cyclical one, like a time loop, it gets easier with practice but needs to be revisited often. Once you have a clear mental black board with clean tables and labelled columns, you can pick and choose what you want to prioritise, sounds fun doesn't it? Waking up everyday and choosing an emotion or feeling or a thought that will be like the quote of the day or the key word for the day. And when things go wrong to try and remind yourself of that keyword.

I cannot help myself, but share a verse from the Bhagavad Gita here, we all have unavoidable discharge of our duties and hence the part of not lamenting needs to be reminded daily.

Coming back to faith, where does faith come in all this? As I mentioned, emotions and feelings cannot be sustained for long, their nature is transient and hence like a boat on rocky waters, they need an anchor. Light-heartedness is a state of mind or state of the heart emotion and in all practicality cannot be sustained unless it is rooted in faith. By faith here I do not mean any particular religion or spiritual path. By faith I mean faith in itself that life is good, even when there is no evidence of good things today in your life. You may be an atheist but still you must have at least faith in your self or a general knowing of well being in the back of your mind. For those who believe in God or the universe or a higher power this gets relatively easier, believe without doubting, believe without questioning and believe without asking for evidence, believe in the general goodness of life. It is going to be difficult for me to not ask for evidence, as I so often do, still practicing unwavering faith that my manifestations will come true is the key. I advice making vision boards, digital or physical of what you desire to manifest. Our minds are used to subconscious cues and when we have these manifestation boards we are inspired to take action that lead to the eventual manifestations of our dreams. The idea is to not get too attached to the deadline or the specifics of the how, just have fun putting together your vision board and looking at it daily once with a buoyant heart.

What to do if unwavering faith in a happy future seems like a distant planet in another galaxy? We often stop ourselves from even dreaming or thinking of possibilities because we have decided on an upper limit of how much we deserve or we have been told to even dream within our limits. If you are in a situation like this, do not force yourself to have faith it will be counterproductive. Instead, start by pampering yourself to small treats, shifting your energy slowly steadily one day at a time. Spend time with people who lift you up or spend time with animals they have a great power to transmit goodness. Once you find your energy has shifted and you find a sliver of hope, grab it with both hands and don't let go. Tugging at this one sliver of hope can lead you to the anchor of unwavering faith.

One caution, both these states of light-heartedness and unwavering faith are like muscles, they need to be exercised everyday to keep them alive. Deliberate living, choosing each day and reminding oneself is the key. We are humans at the end of the day and we have flaws, that is why I am hoping that if I can achieve this even about 50% of the days in 2023, it would be amazing. Join me, think of your own mantra's for 2023 and if you want to take up these two you are more than welcome to. If you do decide to join me, comment below "I am in" and share your mantras too. Most importantly, please remind me at the end of the year to write if I actually managed to follow through and if so what is my score ;-).