You Are Enough!
This week has proved to be a very interesting one. On one hand I had some very good news that I passed an exam I had been preparing for two years, on the other hand, a situation arose in which I had to let go of a relationship that was very dear to me.
Unfortunately the result was that I found myself in a state of thinking I am not good enough and even the piece of paper telling me I had passed an incredibly difficult exam was not going to convince me otherwise. After much reflection though I realised that I did not want to let external factors such as a piece of paper or another person determine my self worth. I’ve been there before and it only takes you on a path of self sabotage.
It’s interesting the mind and how much thought patterns play into our lives. The last few years I have been reading a lot about neuroscience and the idea that we can change our lives by changing our neurological pathways, our thoughts. And I have experienced this first hand. I used to suffer from a phobia that in its clutches left me anxious and prone to panic attacks.
I tried so many different methods to overcome this phobia and on an intellectual level I knew my phobia was irrational and wreaking havoc yet nothing seemed to work. Then one day, (I can’t even remember what inspired this), I made up a mantra, a very empowering mantra and started to use it in my day to day life. The next time that my phobia set in and I felt the beginning of a panic attack coming on I used this mantra and I was dumbfounded by the result. My anxiety, heart rate, shallow breathing immediately stopped. Literally within a few seconds I was calm. Of course I thought it was a fluke – it couldn’t be the mantra but I tried it again and again and it worked every time.
Gradually the phobia started to lose its power over me and life got easier and I became what a lot of my friends described as “chilled”.
A year later a fellow work mate asked me what had changed in me from the time she met me to now (18 months later) and I told her that I used a mantra. Of course the next question was – “what is your mantra?” I decided not to tell her because I felt like it might lose its power for me and I think this mantra was very specific to me and what I needed at that time. I also didn’t want to lead someone into thinking that if they just said these particular words it would change their life because I think mantras are very personal and need to resonate with you.
But in saying that, today I thought I would share another mantra I use that’s very simple and generic and might help if you too are feeling not good enough for any reason. Today I’m having self sabotaging thoughts and feeling pretty sad but I’m going with the “fake it till you make it” approach because I definitely don’t want to sit in this headspace forever. So here it is – clear, simple, empowering…
If I continue to believe that I am not doing enough, that I am not loveable, that I am not good enough, then I probably never will be. If I continue to believe that the only way I will be good enough is if I achieve X, or if I obtain X, or if X happens then I will never be content with who I am. So I feel have no choice than to believe that I AM enough (even if I have to “fake it till I make it”). So if you too are struggling with not feeling like you are not enough then I offer this mantra to you…
You Are Enough!
Peace.
Emma