I have often thought that mantras were a bit silly. Just saying something to yourself over and over does NOT make it true, I thought. What if my mantra was that I am an elephant? That won’t work.

Then I tried them. And now I think I can believe at least a little bit in mantras. The key is to find the right mantra. I believe that if there is something that is true when you are acting out of your truth, rather than your fear, reminding yourself of that truth is powerful.

For instance, when I am acting out of my fear, I can be frantic and wild, like a caged animal trying to escape. And that is my fear talking. When I am acting out of my truth, rather than reacting to my fear, I am calm and confident. I know who I am at my core. But I forget who I am when the fear takes over.

When you are first starting out, and you don’t think you even know at all who you are, a great mantra to start with is:

I am ok.

Whether you believe it or not, you are ok. Your fears cloud your thinking and take over with messages that say the opposite, but you are actually ok. Repeat this to yourself often. It was once suggested to me that everytime you walk through a doorway, repeat one of your basic mantras. While I also found that a bit silly, I did it and found that it was amazingly powerful. Just forcing myself to say something nice to myself made a gigantic difference in how I felt.

It is also helpful to couple this mantra with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping. I am certainly no expert in EFT, but you can find plenty of help online for this technique and get started in 5 minutes. All I know is that, coupled with a huge leap of faith and some desperation, I started using EFT many years back and repeating those mantras while I tap on my acupressure points and, strangely and unexpectedly, felt real relief.

Give it a try – identify a core belief and reassure yourself with it by saying it when the fear creeps in or when the fear practically knocks you down.