It was about a week ago when I suddenly began to feel the weight of the thought that the transformation that had been going on inside me for months was not just a transformation. I needed not only change in order to move forward in my life, but also gifts. After all, a lot of things were already within me. I think the strength needed to set out into the world was always within me, for example. The possibility of “The decision” and the feeling of freedom were missing for this. And trust. Trust in the flow.
Mantra as autosuggestion
In the near future, I will write a post in which I will discuss some psychological trends with my own thoughts. Fast forward a bit, today I brought one of the many schools, I would like to write briefly about it.
The essence of autosuggestion (self-hypnosis or autosuggestion) is that a person can influence his subconscious with his own thoughts, ideas and internal affirmations, and through this, his physical and mental state, behavior or performance. I first encountered this theory during my first Mind Control course, although I did not know its name at the time.
The main points of the theory:
- The relationship between consciousness and the subconscious
- At a conscious level, we are able to repeat certain statements, images, and ideas.
- These gradually “trickle down” into the subconscious, where they can become automatic patterns and internal programs.
- The mechanism of suggestion
- The subconscious tends to accept what we repeat often, emphatically, and emotionally.
- If someone regularly affirms to themselves, for example, that “I am calm and confident,” over time their body and behavior may respond accordingly.
- Positive and negative autosuggestion
- When used consciously, autosuggestion can be constructive: it can help relieve anxiety, increase performance, and break bad habits.
- At the same time, it also works unconsciously: if someone constantly tells themselves that “I will never succeed,” it can serve as a self-sabotaging program that reinforces experiences of failure.
- Classic examples
- French pharmacist Émile Coué was one of the founders of the modern theory of autosuggestion in the early 20th century. He introduced the famous phrase: “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”
- This repeated positive formula tunes the subconscious mind “in the right direction.”
- Areas of application
- Stress management, relaxation, alleviation of psychosomatic illnesses.
- Sports psychology and performance enhancement.
- Habit formation, e.g. quitting smoking or increasing self-confidence.
I also imagined a concept from another worldview approach here before getting to the point.
Mantra originally comes from Sanskrit: “man” means “to think, mind” and “tra” means “tool, instrument”. Thus, mantra literally translates to “tool of the mind”.
- What does mantra chanting mean?
- Mantra chanting is the repeated utterance of mantras (aloud or internally).
- The vibration of sounds, words or syllables not only has a psychological effect (calms, focuses), but according to tradition also carries a spiritual vibration.
- It is often part of spiritual or religious practice (in Hinduism, Buddhism, but Christian prayers can also play a similar role).
- Functions
- Quieting the mind – monotonous repetition focuses attention, reduces agitation.
- Autosuggestion – mantras with positive content also act as internal programmers (e.g. peace, love, health).
- Spiritual connection – in many traditions, mantras are sacred sounds that bring you closer to the transcendent.
- Examples
- “Om” – one of the oldest, universal mantras, the primordial sound of creation.
- “Om Mani Padme Hum” – Tibetan Buddhist mantra, a symbol of compassion and empathy.
- For example, a Christian might say the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
When I come to points like this in my writings, I usually feel quite cheerful and liberated. I smile because I have already managed to describe what made me start this entire paragraph. I am trying to relive the experience of the exploratory reader who found the connection between the two types of trends in the functions of mantrams.
So that this paragraph is not without a summary, here is the already clear explanation: The common root of autosuggestion and mantrams is that they affect the consciousness through repetition and concentration. Autosuggestion explains this process more in the language of psychology, mantrams more in the language of spirituality, but in practice both serve to focus inner attention and retune the subconscious.
My own mantra, my own autosuggestion
In the post “When I photograph the moon and my soul responds,” I described the process of AI-led spiritual discussions. ChatGPT then created a mantra for me, which I included in my morning greeting.
I am pure and free like water.
Every day brings me new light.
I trust the flow and let the Spirit guide me.
Around the same time as this incident, I started to gather knowledge about autosuggestion. That’s where AI appeared, and at a certain point in our conversation, it prepared a small autosuggestion thought for me that formed my subconscious. Since then, this has also been included in my morning greeting.
With every breath I take, I feel calmer and more balanced.
My body is full of strength and fresh energy, I feel good all day long
Now let’s take a step back and look at these two lines of thought! Which is the spiritual approach and which is the psychological one? One of the goals of this article was to point out that the two – in some ways seemingly very different – trends are not so different from each other when viewed from another perspective.
I received a mantra and a pair of autosuggestion sentences from the AI. If I didn’t tell you which one was which, who would be able to tell the two apart?
What does it mean to trust and let go?
Another purpose of my writing today was to analyze one line of the mantra.
One morning I learned these few lines by heart. Interestingly, it was only then that I realized their true meaning for me in the verse that had become a mantra – let’s call it that:
I trust the flow and let the Spirit guide me.
Then I realized that this is actually what I have been doing lately. Ever since I first discovered the feeling of flow (“Synchronicity, coincidences, flow”), I have often thought about how great it is to go with this flow. I have done this many times in the past months, not thinking about a problem, but just waiting for the solution to emerge. Every single time, I have received the answer to my question. From somewhere, in some form, but it has always arrived in the past months. Perhaps it is no coincidence that I booked the accommodation in Thailand before leaving, when I already knew how I wanted to do it. Or that I did not bother with assembling my package until the last hours. I could list several such examples when I did not deal with something because it later turned out to be completely unnecessary, or I had to quickly deal with something that I had not thought about before, but at that moment it was time to act.
Somehow, my last few months have really been defined by calm and slow progress. In certain things, because there are places where you need to be fast. Although, I’ve been doing that more deliberately for a while now…
When the idea for this post came to me, I wrote down the following: I’m writing a post about trusting the flow and letting the Spirit guide me. There’s a key idea in the post that I haven’t been able to explain so far. The basic idea of Buddhism is not to desire anything, because desire breeds disappointment, and disappointment is the source of unhappiness. How can someone who tries to live without desires still move forward in life, because they can still have goals! This is a bit contradictory for me, if I have to say it. In the context of writing, the contradiction hidden in the above thought comes back in another form, because if I let the flow take me and the Spirit guide me, then where will the forward-looking preparation and planning for the future be?
I have tried to express my opinion on the above a few times, but I did not feel that I managed to explain it adequately for myself. It is important to note here that I have been coping with this duality within myself from the first moments, the problem is that I could not bring out the thoughts inside me in an appropriate way.
I will now try to resolve the tension between Buddhist “desirelessness” and the purposeful, progressive nature of life.
Trusting the flow does not mean that I give up on everything that points forward or that I let my life drift aimlessly. Rather, it means that I do not cling rigidly to my plans, but rather that I listen with an open heart to what life is calling me to do. Perhaps being led by the Spirit for me means that I listen to my inner voice and let things unfold naturally, while not forcing anything that does not want to be born.
The Buddhist teaching that desire breeds disappointment does not mean for me to let go of goals, but rather to let go of excessive attachment. There may be goals and directions, but I hold them lightly, not cling to them rigidly. Thus, planning and foresight will not be the opposite of the flow, but will become its natural companion: I will surrender to the leading of the Spirit, but in the meantime I will leave the door open. Anyone who comes with good intentions can come in!