Centering Incantations for Joy and Action

In the last post I shared 12 powerful incantations (breathing-and-thinking bundles) that I believe can serve you. Here they are again:

(I am completely) (stopping)
(I expect) (nothing)
(I am) (doing my work)
(I trust) (my resources)
(I feel) (supported)
(I embrace) (this moment)
(I am free) (of the past)
(I make) (my meaning)
(I am open) (to joy)
(I am equal) (to this challenge)
(I am) (taking action)
(I return) (with strength)

I then described how a client of mine, a performer named Jane, used these incantations in a daily way. In that post, I went through the first four of the incantations; in this post, I’ll explain how Jane used the remaining eight.

5. “(I feel) (supported)”

Like many people, Jane couldn’t clearly sort out her often-contradictory thoughts and feelings about spirituality, religion, and the meaning of life. She doubted that she believed in gods and consequently called herself agnostic, but she wasn’t at all sure that was what she truly believed or felt. Nor could she picture a way to get clear and arrive at any conclusions or decisions. She wasn’t interested in joining a new church or reading books on spiritual healing and she said to herself that she was putting “all of that on a back burner.” At the same time, the universe felt very cold to her and it was to counteract that coldness that she began employing Incantation 5, which began to serve as her sole spiritual practice.

6. “(I embrace) (this moment)”

Jane recognized that before performances and especially before auditions, she would catch herself wishing that she were somewhere—anywhere—else. She knew that this was a counterproductive thought and even an irrational one, as she was entirely instrumental in choosing her career and had done everything in her power to get herself to exactly this place in the wings. She knew that she wanted to “change her mind” about not wanting to be there and began to use Incantation 6 for that purpose. By using Incantation 6 she could surrender, accept that she was where she wanted to be, and relax.

7. “(I am free) (of the past)”

When Jane landed a role in a musical comedy and began rehearsing her part, which involved a good deal of dancing as well as singing and acting, she found herself internally bombarded with messages from the past about her clumsiness. Her parents had laughed at her at her first dance recital, a memory that still haunted her. She knew that it was wrong-headed to suppose that dancing awkwardly at the age of seven meant that she couldn’t dance, yet she’d never gotten over the sense that she was doomed as a dancer. All through the rehearsal process she turned to Incantation 7 when negative thoughts and feelings about her dancing threatened to derail her.

8. “(I make) (my meaning)”

Jane realized that she had gotten into the habit of second-guessing her motives for performing and thereby precipitating regular meaning crises. This second-guessing occurred most often after visits with her parents, who never failed to remind her that she should have chosen a more sensible career. She would defend herself to them, arrive home, and feel severely depressed. In that dark mood, she would doubt herself and her choices. Previously she had no simple way to affirm that she really did believe in her meaning-making efforts and that she intended to stand behind her heartfelt choices. Then she began using Incantation 8. By using this incantation when she felt her resolve slip or existential doubt creep into her thinking, she found it possible to recover her “meaning” center.

9. “(I am open) (to joy)”

As a child, Jane had experienced joy many times, for instance just looking up at the night sky or swimming in the neighborhood pool. As an adult, joy had become so elusive that she’d stopped expecting to experience it. That seemed to be the adult thing to do, to give up on joy and settle for “not too much unpleasantness” instead. Ultimately, though, that felt as unacceptable as settling for a life without love or hope. She knew that there was joy to be found in the present moment if only she could surrender to it, and joy to be found in performance. Once she realized that experiencing joy soothed and centered her and that it was her job to open up to its possibility, she committed to using Incantation 9 first thing in the morning and regularly throughout the day.

10. “I am equal) (to this challenge)”

Living a principled life, manifesting our potential, and realizing our goals constitute a recipe for challenge. Jane realized that she had to let go of the hope that things ought to be easy, so as to avoid feeling uncenteredness when things turned out not to be easy. She knew that she was challenging herself by choosing to perform and by testing her metal in an environment as competitive as show business. She therefore had to affirm that she was equal to that challenge, even if on a given day she didn’t feel or believe that she was. Incantation 10 became a centering affirmation that she used on the spur of the moment to remind herself that she had what it took to succeed.

11. “(I am) (taking action)”

Like many people, Jane knew that if she let herself drift into a passive, brooding way of being, as she regularly did, she would become depressed and uncentered. Although she knew that taking action—sometimes any action, just getting dressed and getting out the door—often completely lightened her mood and helped her re-center, it hadn’t struck her how important it was to take action to fight passivity, anxiety, and doubt. When she made that connection, she immediately incorporated Incantation 11 into her daily routine, using it to counteract her blue feelings and to move her past procrastination.

12. “(I return) (with strength)”

Jane found herself performing in a musical where she had to make many exits and entrances. Each new entrance provoked a bout of performance anxiety, which she began to quell by using Incantation 12. By announcing to herself that she was returning to the stage with strength, she blocked her anxious thoughts and inoculated herself against her main fear, that she would lose control of her body (a common fear among performers). She also began to use Incantation 12 as her main “transition” incantation throughout the day, especially when she returned from lunch and had to face a long afternoon of routine busywork.

I think that Jane’s experience gives you a sense of how ten-second centering works. Practice the twelve incantations a few times right now, taking them one at a time, ask yourself the question, “When might I use this incantation?” Picture real-life situations and imagine yourself using one or another of the incantations before the situation, during it, and/or after it ends. If you feel ready, turn this mental practice into real practice by using one or another of the incantations in situations that arise for you today.

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[Over the course of several weeks I’ll be providing a series of posts that will help you stay calm and centered in 2022. These posts are based on two of my books, Redesign Your Mind and Ten Zen Seconds. To learn more about the techniques I’ll be describing, please take a look at those two books.