My Mantras

 Let's talk about positive self talk. It's hard. End of story. 

No, but really, positive self talk and inner monologues have always been something I struggle with. My brain defaults to the negative like I think so many of ours do. When things are going well it's easier for me to fight the negativity and find some positive. When things are not going well though, it's really, really hard. How do you find positivity when you are simply trying to make it through each moment? I find myself waiting around for something bad to happen, some signal that I need to get back on another medication and am not capable of living without it. Then I have to remind myself that I've already been doing the hard thing for days and doing well with it so why am I searching for a problem? (Anxiety is why, but we don't have to talk about that right now.) For so long, when my anxiety was really bad, I was always told to not listen or trust those thoughts. While that is completely true, it's really hard to now switch the narrative to trusting myself and believing these other more positive thoughts. 

How do I do it? Well mostly I just try to do it. I'm not always successful, but I've found a few simple mantras/phrases that I can repeat to myself when I'm starting to feel off. I feel like they have actually been working and so I wanted to share them in case anyone wants to try them out as well. 

• I am safe. (I always start with this no matter what.)
• I am healthy. 
• I allow myself to heal and get better. 
• I am allowed to be okay or I am allowed to not be okay.

Sometimes I use all of these, sometimes I only need a few. I also, of course, sometimes throw in mantras specific to my situation, such as I am allowed to be hungry/full, but these four are my core ones I keep coming back to. Anyone have any mantras that they find themselves gravitating to? I would love to hear them in the comments.