Researchers say we have at least 15,000 thoughts every single day (other claim we have several times as many).  How many of those thoughts are actually useful, positive or uplifting?  I’ll go out on a limb and say, “not many.”  In fact, the vast majority of our thinking appears to be repetitive and unproductive.  We are possessed by the phenomenon of re-thinking: turning the exact same thoughts over and over in our mind with no result other than driving ourselves a little crazier.

Here’s a question: Why have the same thought more than once?  If you didn’t need to differentiate your worthwhile ideas from a sea of internal chatter, you wouldn’t need to.  For such an advanced race, we’re awfully inefficient with our mental hardware.

I’ve come across some great mental strategies for re-wiring the mind to work more effectively.  Gratitude, visualization, and affirmation stand out in particular.  Often, these strategies provide just the lift I need to get back into a positive, productive place.  But other times, I’m just not feeling it.  I’m not in the mood to play mental games, and I just want to get back into the moment and enjoy life.  What I’m really yearning for is presence,   the basis not only of joy, but of our best ideas.

You’ve probably experienced the idea-generating power of presence while driving, showering, or engaging in other “thoughtless” activities.  Those are a start, but they aren’t the only ways to enter a state of presence.  In fact, presence can be cultivated deliberately and to a much greater degree with a spiritual mantra.

Meet the Spiritual Mantra: A World-Class Idea Generator

A spiritual mantra is a particular phrase which when repeated mentally, allows you to focus your conscious mind.  It’s like a house-cleaning exercise: as you flush out unwanted thoughts, you naturally make room for new and better ideas hitherto buried in your subconscious.

My theory as to how this happens goes like this: the ego hates stillness.  It wants to survive, and it equates being “turned off” with death.  In order to distract you from a state of stillness, your monkey mind knows that it needs to produce an enticing, attention-grabbing idea.  Therefore, it digs a little bit deeper into your subconscious to extract a particularly seductive idea to woe you out of meditation.  Although this is a nuisance when sitting for meditation in earnest, it’s an incredible idea-generating strategy that can be performed whenever your mind is idle.

Note that a spiritual mantra isn’t an affirmation.  Affirmations are positive “I” statements used for personal growth or healing, such “I am completely responsible for every area of my life.”  These certainly have their place, but they aren’t as effective at stimulating presence.  After all, they engage the “I,” the ego, which is exactly what a spiritual mantra seeks to turn off.

How to Use a Spiritual Mantra to Clear Your Mind and Attract Better Ideas

Step 1: Select a mantra. When you select a spiritual mantra, find a phrase that is embedded with a spiritual significance for you.  If that means using a prayer or an affirmation, go ahead.  Just remember that the less involvement of the ego, the better.

Step 2: Repeat your mantra mentally in the idle moments. Whenever your mind would otherwise be idle and left to its own devices, reassert control with your mantra.  Use it when you get up to use the bathroom, walk to the fridge, or brush your teeth.  The applications are limitless; however, repeating your mantra while fully engaged in another activity won’t work very well.  It’s ideally suited for those “half-engaged” moments where your mind would otherwise be daydreaming.

Step 3: Record your best ideas, let the rest go. You may not believe me, but one of the most wonderful feelings in the world is letting what seems like a “good idea” go while in meditation.  I can do so because I know that if it is a truly great idea, it will come back to me when I end my meditation.  And it works the same way even if I’m not meditating but just repeating my mantra.  It feels nice to be above ideas, every now and then, instead of feeling as though you are at their mercy.

Mental Vigilance = Mental Excellence

It’s easy to farm out your attention to the shiniest, sexiest thing in your awareness.  That’s what most people do.  But a lazy mind rarely produces worthwhile ideas.  A vigilant mind is guarded against the innumerable influences of the world, and begins to think for itself.

You’ve seen the numbers- we don’t need more ideas.  We need better, more thoughtful, more reflective, more conscious ideas.  In its own paradoxical way, that’s exactly what happens when repeating a spiritual mantra.

(photo courtesy of Edgar Thissen)