There are no magic words, there is no self-help mantra which dispel depression, fear and self-doubt for all people and at all times.
We’ve learned the hard and important lesson that trying to dismiss those things out-of-hand is unhelpful, is counterproductive. Not every pain or mental condition can vanish on command. But that being said, almost every mental condition will, if you choose to honor it by giving it more space in your brain, more power in your life, take over as much of you as it can. That’s the nature of hurt in the brain; the more it’s able to become a part of your conscious process, the more it will take over larger segments of your thoughts.
Let’s combat that. If you seek to be brave, if you seek to be strong, if you want to conquer fear, fight your intrusive thoughts with resolute thoughts of your own:
- “The mind says to be paralyzed by danger; but danger is one of the places I call home.”
- “This is only fear. I have faced fear before, and survived.”
- “Pain can be strong enough to rule your life, but that day has not come yet.”
- “I have walked willingly into places more difficult than this one”.
- “Perhaps the worst will happen; but if it does, I will take it in, learn from it, and become better.”
- “If I have the power to think, then I have the power to fight.”
EMBRACE THE ANVIL
An anvil is an unyielding force against which one tempers a piece of metal by striking it repeatedly with a smith’s hammer. This is a mantra of the anvil:
Use me.
Destroy me.
I will come back.
Test me.
Need me.
Rely on me.
I will come back.
Sometimes I will fail.
Sometimes I will lose.
Sometimes I will break.
I will come back.
I will come back.
I will come back.
I will come back stronger.