View this post on Instagram

 

A mantra to guide us through the wildness of life is my top mindfulness hack.

We can use it to handle and survive any stressful situation.

Firstly, I believe we are in control of the outcome and future direction of our own life; we can steer ourselves through the “journey,” overcoming any obstacles, hurdles, or blocks, and write our own ending. I am an author after all, and authors like to control the start, middle, and end of each chapter.

Why not transpose that into my real life, especially my travel life where chaos is everywhere?

Picture the scene: chaos is happening around you and internally you are as cool as a cucumber. How is this possible? Well, you have activated your mantra. A mantra that can help clear your mind of anxious thoughts and allow your mind to refocus.

It can feel like a superpower, a powerful tool to have in our toolkit.

I know it sounds too good to be true, and it needs a little practice, but this is how I have used my mantra in 2021:

1. Getting a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere on the second day of my six-day solo road trip around Cyprus.

2. The airline check-in attendant telling me I couldn’t board my flight back to Scotland as the COVID-19 passenger locator form was incorrectly completed.

3. My book launch party venue was double booked.

4. An upset tummy decided to rear its ugly head when running my last marathon in Manchester.

So, what do all these experiences have in common?

They are all unexpected blockers to the journey I was on, potential scenarios to derail what I needed to happen.

If I stayed stuck, this is what the outcomes would have been:

1. Missing out on all the adventures that the island of Cyprus has to offer. No car = stuck me.

2. A missed flight and a headache.

3. Postponed book launch party and another headache.

4. No personal best, and no marathon finish.

The one thing in common across each of these scenarios was my mantra. I activated my mantra.

My mantra is simple:

“This is not how the story ends.”

How powerful is that as a statement?

Not only is it signalling that we’re aware we’ve reached a bump in our journey, but that we’ve acknowledged there is a way around it, and that there will be a new outcome to what we are currently experiencing.

Every time I activate this mantra in my head, it signals hope of a better ending.

It also allows my mind to slow down and prevent a chaotic response—where in full reactive mood, I would be scrambling for a better outcome.

Instead, the mantra combined with some mindful breathing has allowed me to navigate each of the bumps calmly, and the story definitely ends differently. That is why it’s powerful.

I know from prior life experience that I have always worked through the scenario to a better outcome. Not always the perfect scenario, but it moved me forward.

Let’s look at the end outcome of each scenario:

1. Getting a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere on the second day of my six-day solo road trip around Cyprus.

A lovely local man changed my flat tyre to the spare tyre and I drove to my overnight cabin retreat. The next day, I drove to the nearest city (not my intended route), and received a new car. Then my plans were back on track.

2. The airline check-in attendant telling me I couldn’t board my flight back to Scotland as the Covid passenger locator form was incorrectly completed.

I completed the form correctly while the airline check-in attendant reminded me “you need to be quick, the flight is about to take off,” and arrived back into my home country.

3. My book launch party venue was double booked.

The venue found my booking confirmation and the party went ahead—with a drag queen brunch next door. It was pretty wild.

4. An upset tummy decided to rear its ugly head when running my last marathon in Manchester.

After managing my upset tummy in a playing field, I continued to run the marathon and finish with a new personal best.

As you can see, the mantra has been good to me, and it will remain in my resilience toolkit.

What about you? What mantra can you use to act as a trigger to slow down, calm your anxious thoughts, and allow you to figure out life?

We never stop, we keep flowing with life.