Chanting Mantras

Several short phrases are essential to me. I first started to whisper them when passing through grim Berlin and Eastern Germany in 1985 – jerked by travel hassles; irritated by surly border guards; sore with love and life pains. Over the years the phrases have become adaptable; pithy but pliable.

They are lenses through which I peer at puzzling problems. They are palliatives to heal me during my times of pain. They are governors to curb my enthusiasm when it is over-revving.

Clients have posted the words on their walls. I have friends who know the phrases by heart.

The phrases are spoken so much, rolled over my tongue, around my mind, chanted echoes through my being, that they are as mantras.

Here they be:

Nothing is simple

Nothing is what is seems to be

Nothing stays the same

In the fullness of time…

Don’t overthink

(The latter was added in June 2010 after doing too much thinking and not enough feeling…)

I have guest mantras that I use now and again. They are most usually applicable to professional situations. You can use these too:

So what? Who cares?

It’s all about the money

I could write much of how these mantras are applicable to my life and career. But that would not be anywhere as useful as you taking them and using them in your own lives. Treat them well; chant them when you need to.