One word I would use to describe this song and video is “masterpiece.” Yes, I’m a proud mother but it fits anyway. It is perfection: it has the perfect words, the perfect tune, the perfect pictures and the perfect notes. Everything has meaning. It is for children and adults. It is complex yet simple. I find it to be hauntingly beautiful. I listen to it at least five times a day now.
My son got his friend Ramadatt to play the guitar with him on this song to take it to the next level. They were able to create some magic here.
Amma’s mother passed away this week. (Amma is my spiritual teacher.) Her mother was 97. On the day she passed, Vedavati snapped this sunset photo. It looks like there are two suns but it is more likely to be a reflection of some kind. Still, it seems significant that it happened on the day Amma’s mother passed.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, (Using Affirmations as Mantras), mantras are usually short Sanskrit sentences that translate often into some form of “I bow to God.” People łiving in religious communities that use mantras are encouraged to say their mantra all day every day. Saying a mantra quiets people’s minds and in so doing they are better able to focus on God.
Months ago, while I was living in a senior residential community, I faced a situation where that knowledge was useful.
I was beginning to have more trouble walking. One day, as I walked, my foot became caught in a paper bag. I was increasingly frustrated. No matter what I did, I couldn’t free my foot from the bag. Since then I’ve been told that that kind of experience and the accompanying frustration is typical in Parkinson’s patients.
About this same time, I started saying “I can’t do it” a lot. Eventually, I realized that I was immersed in negative thinking.
Whenever I heard myself say “I can’t do it. I changed it to “I can do it.” or “I will do it.” At times, I even used the line from ”The Little Engine that Could. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”. And once I achieved the challenging task, I said “I did do it.”
I decided if i was going to free my mind from negativity it could be done with a positive mantra. Tochange what I was saying to myself,I would change my mantra. While I knew that it’s best to say the mantra all day every day, I also knew that in therapy group we only expected clients to say it 1000 times a day. For this purpose I would say it anytime I was facing a challenging problem where I was tempted to say “I can’t do it” and if I still had problems I would bump the mantra repetition up to 1000 times a day.
I soon noticed that I was more successful in meeting my goals when I said the positive mantras, i.e. “I think I can” pretending I was the little engine chugging along the tracks or using ”I can do ït” or “I will do it” or “I did do it” as a positive mantra.
(Note: ”I will do it“ is the mantra that is most likely to be successful while “I can do it” and “ I think I can” tend to be less effective. Whatever the mantra is that brought you to success should be changed to “I did do it”once you’re successful. It is important that you reward yourself in this way.)
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”-William Shakespeare
Living, Learning and Letting Go 