Every Day In Every Way...

The Phrase That Can Change Your Life

I am a huge fan of mantras in my meditation practice. Mantras are words or phrases you can repeat to help focus your mind. Mantras are also positive affirmations that can be useful in helping you change your outlook on life. When we concentrate on what is good in our life, we see more good in our life. When we remind ourselves that we are evolving and growing, we continue to evolve and grow. It’s important to feed our minds with positive thoughts and to speak kind words to ourselves.

You may have heard the experiment with plants where over the course of a month one group of plants received compliments and they grew and thrived; while the other plants (grown in the exact same conditions) were spoken to harshly and they withered. If speaking kindly to plants helps them grow, can you imagine how we’d blossom if we did the same for ourselves? It may sound cheesy; but I think it really does make a difference.

My younger brother was obsessed with Winnie the Pooh growing up. I remember watching the movie every weekend with him. Eeyore was a miserable donkey always moping around and saying things like, “Oh bother.” He was always down on his luck. Winnie the cheery bear, on the other hand, always had a positive outlook on life and loved his adventures with his friends. He turned every mishap into a blessing.

Here’s the thing, we can sit and mope around like Eeyore or we can see the glass half full; and remind ourselves every day that we even have a glass to fill. One of my favorite mantras is from a French psychologist named Emile Coué. He believed that his patients could recover more effectively if they said this phrase: “Everyday in every way I’m getting better and better.” He would administer their medicine as well as recite this phrase to them. He noticed many of them were able to heal faster and flourish.

This mantra gives us a sense of empowerment over our growth and healing. Our words hold weight. What we think and speak often becomes our existence. We all have the capacity to bloom and grow stronger every day. I love this phrase because it can apply to whatever it is you want to see come to fruition. It may be you want to hold a handstand; or it could be that you are giving up alcohol. Maybe you are training for a marathon; or maybe you’ve just left a toxic relationship. You could be recovering from an injury or working on writing a novel. This mantra reminds us that every day we take a step in the direction of our goals and dreams, we are growing. Oftentimes we can’t see it from day to day; but in a week or a month from now you can look back and see how far you’ve come.

We can wallow in misery or take on each day with the attitude that we are doing our best and we are getting better and better. I hope you’ll try this one on for size and repeat it in your meditation practice or throughout your day and start to see how things change in your life. Plant the seeds, water the soil, give yourself plenty of sunlight and positive thoughts and watch yourself thrive.