I repeat as a mantra … ?

The Retune Blog - 4th August 2023

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

We’ve been on holiday as a family recently and whilst there were joking about our catchphrases. We all have them, and if you’re anything like me they frequently change according to what’s going on in my head at that point in time.

For example, I’ve recently found myself frequently saying; it’s not our experiences but our response to experiences which form us. This is usually met with the refrain from my daughters that the phrase is not original to me, and my subsequent counter-response that nothing ever is.

Yet, when we look at neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), we can begin to see just how important these phrases themselves are to our formation. Cue our song of the week, Sam Fender’s Mantra:

"Please stop tryin' to impress people who don't care about you" I repeat as a mantra. I've known this wicked waltzer all too long. It's the cycle I'm stuck on, and I'm tryin' to be better, but I fall at every hurdle.

In these lyrics from the first verse we see how there is a stage between experience and response, one of reflection and framing. We begin to think about the experience and start to create language to help us make sense (to us at least - and this isn’t always helpful) of what’s happening and how we might choose to begin to react.

I also love how these lyrics link our development of a personal mantra to our own need for positive self-talk. So, my phrase about our responses is an ongoing reminder to myself as much as it is anyone else that my responses to situations are always in my control, even when the situations themselves and their contexts are not.

So, what phrases do you have and how have they come about? Perhaps talk to someone about one of your phrases this week. And, I’d love to hear some of them too, so why not get in touch and we’ll see if we can share some of each other's wisdom.