10 mantras to let go and stay present

I’m back in shape, in a mindfulness sense.

And let me tell you it is GREAT. I feel at peace.

It’s not just meditation I’ve been doing to feel this way. Over time, I’ve developed mantras to help me stay mindful.

Here are the mantras. I use them as reminders to help me let go:

1. The past is the past. Sometimes, I lose the majority of a meditation to distraction. But just because I was distracted for the first 15 minutes, doesn’t mean I need to be distracted for the 5 minutes. I can let the past be the past. As long as I don’t ruminate on the past, I can make the most of time I have left. Life is very much the same way.
2. You can find peace amidst stress. I get stressed often by triggers at work, and I used to often let it ruin my mornings and evenings. Now I still get stressed, but I don’t let it take over my life. For example, I can feel peaceful doing my morning routine even if I have a busy and trigger-full day ahead.
3. Most thoughts are useless. Most thoughts actually have no consequence on your life. It’s like when you remember a few notes of a song, and you just can’t let the train of thought go until you figure out what song it is. An entirely useless train of thought that you cannot let go. Most thoughts are like that.
4. Don’t ruminate after socializing. I have a pattern of ruminating on the subway back home after I’m done socializing. I’ll revisit conversations in my head, or be influenced by them in some way (e.g. I meet a founder and start thinking about how I could do a startup again). Trying to let go instead now.
5. It’s just your image. Don’t micromanage it. Many of my thoughts, I’m worried about my image in the eyes of others. Most of this image management doesn’t matter. As long as I have family, some friends and do a good job at work, I can be very imperfect in my social encounters and it is fine.
6. Don’t be too passionate. I notice when I’m too excited by an idea, I’m not being mindful. I let go.
7. Don’t be too happy. As a long term meditator, I can tell when people are too carried away by their positive emotions (e.g. passion). If you have highs, you will have lows. If you’re happy with a good test score, you’ll be unhappy with a bad test score. Don’t overreact to positive emotions.
8. Don’t hold your breath, breathe too fast, walk too fast, let your heart race, or hold tightness in your chest. For me, these are physical signs that I’m agitated.
9. It’s just the voice in your head. Sometimes, I can viscerally tell the voice is literally a voice chattering in my head. I try to ignore it.
10. This too shall pass. When I’m tired and just want to go home, I remember that these unpleasant sensations in my body will eventually come to pass.

These mantras are different expressions of the same concept…

So if you remember one thing from this article, remember to “let go.”