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Thread: Personal mantras and Power of Inspiration

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    Thinking...thinking! dramasnot6's Avatar
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    Lightbulb Personal mantras and Power of Inspiration

    Who here has recieved bits of advice, heard a quote, or any other inspirational words that keep them going through the day? Just personal mantras you repeat when things get rough or frustrating. Also, why do you think they work for you? How can one little phrase or sentence boost someone's spirits, what makes a word powerful? How does one inspiring word or image change the course of someone's life?
    I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.


    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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    i have the words
    You are not
    Alone
    tattooed on my wrist...
    its something ive been sort of meditating on since i was in 7th grade (im graduating, the senior class president of towson high school, this year)
    im a big fan though
    im not really sure why i find it so powerful, i guess i get caught up in being unique, and because we are all unique, i see each person to be fully independent of each other, and i find that depressing, and need to be reminded otherwise.

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    Thinking...thinking! dramasnot6's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by x894565256 View Post
    i have the words
    You are not
    Alone
    tattooed on my wrist...
    its something ive been sort of meditating on since i was in 7th grade (im graduating, the senior class president of towson high school, this year)
    im a big fan though
    im not really sure why i find it so powerful, i guess i get caught up in being unique, and because we are all unique, i see each person to be fully independent of each other, and i find that depressing, and need to be reminded otherwise.
    That's a really interesting interpretation! I always saw expressions similar to that a little differently. That we are not only connected as a species, but struggling as one too. When things seem really hard for me to the point where I feel all alone in my frustrations, I remember that everyone has a understanding of emotion. Even if we have entirely different contexts and experiences, if someone tells me they are sad I will understand. It's a beautiful thing really. Thanks for the great contribution! That is so cool you have it tatooed on
    I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.


    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

  4. #4
    Sweet farewell, Good Nite
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    personal mantras don't work for me. i'm after real experience. so i keep a running journal of quotes - sometimes entire pages - that i find along my journey of reading. i have marble notebooks filled to edify my every mood and always carry one with me in my bag. when times are tough, i'll read one of Jack Kerouac's letters to his editor, Malcolm Cowley, two years before Kerouac published one of the greatest books of the 20th century:

    "I'm in real straits now, my jeans are all torn, i'm living in a shack with a woodstove, have no money whatever, don't care (much) and am waiting day after day for word from you concerning not only the immediate business but your repsonse to my last two novellas, Tristessa, and Gerard. It breaks my heart to be neglected so. After all, it isn't fair..."

    Ahhhh.
    "He was nauseous with regret when he saw her face again, and when, as of yore, he pleaded and begged at her knees for the joy of her being. She understood Neal; she stroked his hair; she knew he was mad."
    ---Jack Kerouac, On The Road: The Original Scroll

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    The Yodfather Stanislaw's Avatar
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    " I am a leaf on the wind...watch me soar"...

    well...not really, that'd be cool.

    but my motto is really: What the heck! - from yancan the chinease cheff.

    ---------------
    Stanislaw Lem
    1921 - 2006, Rest In Peace.
    "Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible"

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    Registered waster IamMissingaLink's Avatar
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    i just tell myself that i love myself - sounds dumb but it means you have a less of a need to be externally validated - as I'm wholly loved (by myself.) Doesn't mean I don't give and recieve love from others but i don't necessarilly NEED it ...thats the in theory anyway; its still early days
    Last edited by IamMissingaLink; 01-09-2007 at 07:37 AM. Reason: so i don't look dumb
    I'm a tourist

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    Inquisitive bloke ClaesGefvenberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dramasnot6 View Post
    Who here has recieved bits of advice, heard a quote, or any other inspirational words that keep them going through the day? Just personal mantras you repeat when things get rough or frustrating. Also, why do you think they work for you? How can one little phrase or sentence boost someone's spirits, what makes a word powerful? How does one inspiring word or image change the course of someone's life?
    This is not exactly a mantra, but it has served me well over the years:

    When I face some obstacle, I simply ask myself: Can I do something about this? If the answer is yes, I do it (Most of the time I can affect the situation, albeit to a varying degree), but if not... I deliberately shove it out of my mind and move on.

    I also heard an Irish (I think) saying I quite liked once. It went something like this:

    You will never ever have but two things to worry about.

    Either you are well or ill.
    If you are well, there is nothing to worry about.
    If you are ill, you have but two things to worry about.

    Either you get well, or you die.
    If you get well there is nothing to worry about.
    If you die, you have but two things to worry about.

    Either you go to heaven or to hell.
    If you go to heaven, there is nothing to worry about.

    If you go to hell, you will be so busy shaking hands
    with your old friends that you will have no time to worry...


    /Claes
    Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

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    Thinking...thinking! dramasnot6's Avatar
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    "If you go to hell, you will be so busy shaking hands
    with your old friends that you will have no time to worry..."
    I really like that Claes....
    I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.


    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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    Bonafide...Savage. Neo_Sephiroth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by IamMissingaLink View Post
    i just tell myself that i love myself - sounds dumb but it means you have a less of a need to be externally validated - as I'm wholly loved (by myself.) Doesn't mean I don't give and recieve love from others but i don't necessarilly NEED it ...thats the in theory anyway; its still early days
    Hey, what a co-in-ki-dink!!! I happen to love myself too!

    No, really, I do!

    I'm to sexy for my shirt, to sexy for my shirt, so sexy it huuuuurrrtttsss...!!!

    *Ahem* Anyway, my personal motivation mantra? Umm...I guess I try to tell myself not to be an idiot and keep it smooth and cool... But it always seems to end up the other way around.
    Last edited by Neo_Sephiroth; 01-10-2007 at 04:12 PM.
    "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people and then they take themselves out of the slums. Christ changes men, who then changes their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." ~ Ezra Taft Benson

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    I just try to remember the words someone once said to me, who mattered to me. It was trivial, but still resonates. But more, I try to think of the song '' Celebrate your life'' by the Beloved, and the lyrics of that. Someone once told me about that song, and how it is important not to be a victim of expectations of others around you. I also think it is about not letting self fulfilling prophecies get you. I also love many quotes, about success and failure, and the past and nostalgia. I have so many I can't think of them all! I have page after page of quotes and poetry I have copied down.

    I think they work because if someone who matters to you tells you something, then it is more important to you because you know that person believes in you, and in your ability to do the best you can do. I think you associate it with their affection for you. I think it works because of this. Otherwise, as regards quotes, it works and changes the course of your life because it speaks to some emotion in you, some truth that you recognize. It means something to you, because it is often the words of someone long dead, but ones that are really relevant to your own life because they touch a chord with you.
    Last edited by summer grace; 01-10-2007 at 08:29 PM.

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    Thinking...thinking! dramasnot6's Avatar
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    I think they work because if someone who matters to you tells you something, then it is more important to you because you know that person believes in you, and in your ability to do the best you can do. I think you associate it with their affection for you. I think it works because of this. Otherwise, as regards quotes, it works and changes the course of your life because it speaks to some emotion in you, some truth that you recognize. It means something to you, because it is often the words of someone long dead, but ones that are really relevant to your own life because they touch a chord with you.
    Aww i agree with you summer grace. I always consider the affect of a compliment to depend on the quality of the compliment, and how much the person saying it means to you. I think that also applies to encouragement and inspiration.
    I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.


    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

  12. #12
    well, inspiration is something that comes from the very bottom of ur own mind, quotes and mantras hardly seem to help in real dark times. But yeah there r some magic words that touch u and make u feel the thing.

    There's a simple quote that i always use while trying to light someone up:
    "The rosebush isnt full of thorns, the thornbush is full of roses."

    There's another by Celia Luce:
    "A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to ur eye and it fills the whole world & puts everything out of focus. Hold it at a proper distance and have it examined & properly classified. Throw it at ur feet and it can be seen at its true setting, just another tiny bump on the pathway of life."
    But of course, it's all a part of my love for the take-it-easy-theory!

    As for me, my personal way to bring myself up is writing down what i'm feeling and thereby analysing myself, eventually reaching a point where i come to the decision that i'm not perhaps as bad as i think i am, or it doesnt really matter if i am, or just simply- "i rock!"

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    Registered waster IamMissingaLink's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neo_Sephiroth View Post
    Hey, what a co-in-ki-dink!!! I happen to love myself too!

    No, really, I do!

    I'm to sexy for my shirt, to sexy for my shirt, so sexy it huuuuurrrtttsss...!!!

    *Ahem* Anyway, my personal motivation mantra? Umm...I guess I try to tell myself not to be an idiot and keep it smooth and cool... But it always seems to end up the other way around.
    you're crazy
    I'm a tourist

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    Thinking...thinking! dramasnot6's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by symphony View Post
    well, inspiration is something that comes from the very bottom of ur own mind, quotes and mantras hardly seem to help in real dark times. But yeah there r some magic words that touch u and make u feel the thing.

    There's a simple quote that i always use while trying to light someone up:
    "The rosebush isnt full of thorns, the thornbush is full of roses."

    There's another by Celia Luce:
    "A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to ur eye and it fills the whole world & puts everything out of focus. Hold it at a proper distance and have it examined & properly classified. Throw it at ur feet and it can be seen at its true setting, just another tiny bump on the pathway of life."
    But of course, it's all a part of my love for the take-it-easy-theory!

    As for me, my personal way to bring myself up is writing down what i'm feeling and thereby analysing myself, eventually reaching a point where i come to the decision that i'm not perhaps as bad as i think i am, or it doesnt really matter if i am, or just simply- "i rock!"
    That's fantastic.I like the rosebush quote Thanks!
    I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.


    Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

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    Good morning, Campers! Jay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stanislaw View Post
    " I am a leaf on the wind...watch me soar"...

    well...not really, that'd be cool.
    Stan, that might not be the best choice anyway, the last time I heard a guy say that, he got impaled and well, died
    I have a plan: attack!

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