In this episode of HR on the Mat, Courtney and Peggy discuss morning mantras. They talk about how a mantra can help you set your day up for success and share some of their favorite mantras.

Video transcript

This transcript was created using an automated transcription service and may contain errors.

Courtney  00:05

Hey, Peggy, I am super excited for our second series HR on the Mat. This time, we’re actually on the mat to talk about morning mantras. First, how are you doing this morning?

Peggy  00:16

I’m doing great. And mornings are, you know, rough for some of us and not rough for others. So I’m excited to learn from you.

Courtney  00:26

Well, morning mantras is one of the ways I love to get my day started, especially when I was working back in the corporate world, depending on what the day had in store for me ahead would differentiate the mantras. And so I’m really excited to share this really easy, quick way to set your day up for success, depending on what you’ve got going in the day.

Peggy  00:53

Awesome. Well, one of the things we like to talk about at Purple Ink is creating JoyPowered® workspaces. And to create JoyPowered® workspaces, you really need to be JoyPowered®. And one of the things that being JoyPowered® is sort of really understanding your strengths and appreciating the strengths in others, and then hopefully spreading that among your team. So starting out your day with a positive note is definitely something that kind of can help you become that JoyPowered® leader, too.

Courtney  01:33

And I love that. So when I’m walking into a day where I’m going to be trying to leverage my own strengths against colleagues’ strengths, I like to recite the morning mantra of “I am powerful.” It means…it instills a couple things for me. It’s my ability to control the situation. I can’t control what’s happening around me, but I can control how I react. And so I can choose positivity and I can also choose to accelerate my strengths and appreciate others.

Peggy  02:02

And that truly is JoyPowered®. And that reminds me of a phrase that I’ve shared with others, and it was shared with me, but the idea that “I can’t change the wind, but I can adjust my sails.”

Courtney  02:16

I love the visual that that represents. And that brings me to another one, which is “I matter.” And that we each play a role in our house, in the office, in our larger community. And I play an important role, just as everybody else does. And reciting the “I matter” mantra really helps me to recognize that I’m part of this bigger community, be it my house, my office, my actual community, and I play a vital role just as everybody else does.

Peggy  02:54

I love that, too. And I think with mental illness awareness, too, it is really important. And if someone out there listening doesn’t think that they matter, I think it’s…it’s time to, you know, talk to the people you work with, and you might be surprised at how you matter in their life. But I love that one.

Courtney  03:15

Well, that brings me to my third one, which is just simply “I love.” I love who I am. I love my the people in my life. I love how I contribute to the world, what I do. I love my office work. I love…you know, I have a purpose. And it gives that. It’s just a simple “I love,” and however you complete that sentence is authentically you. But it helps to ground for the day and get you set up for success in the lens of positivity.

Peggy  03:40

Yeah, that’s great. And so often people look at their roles and they think, you know, I work here or there and I’m just helping customers and it doesn’t really matter. But you might be the person who makes that customer’s day just by something simple that you say or do to help them, and we can’t all be, you know, out there solving poverty, maybe. That’s…that’s big, right. But we can do our own part in our own way. And if it’s not at work, then maybe it’s in our volunteer life.

Courtney  04:16

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and that brings me back to the oldest mantra and the most widely used mantra, which is a simple “om.” A lot of yogis do it when we chant at the beginning and ends of our practice, but by simply closing your eyes and just humming, “om,” there’s this really awesome powerful vibration that you’ll feel in your body. You got to get away from feeling silly, because you’re going to feel silly the first time. Get away from that and just experience what it is in the privacy of your own bedroom before you get up. But the “om” is this amazing vibration that really grounds you and sets you up for success. It brings the energy and it also, at the same time, it brings you back down in terms of, like, the vital role I play, if it’s answering the phone calls for the day, or setting up catering or leaving a huge meeting and trying to get my team to rally behind me for this amazing initiative, whatever it is, “om” will help ground you while giving you energy at the same time. And it’s the oldest mantra there is. And I…there’s something amazing that yogis and practitioners have been doing that for hundreds of thousands of years. And I sort of just kind of love that.

Peggy  05:32

I do, too. And this is…how does this relate to, like, mindfulness, too?

Courtney  05:38

it’s all part of it. It depends on what you need. Mindfulness is just being authentic to yourself, and what do you need. Sometimes we need to be more inward and saying, I need to be able to build my self-confidence up, and so that leads me to my last mantra, which is “I am.” However you complete that is authentic to you. I…I am brave, I am kind, I am successful, I can do it, whatever it is, it comes back to that mindfulness and its being what you need. There’s also times where you might say, I want to give something out, right? I want to feel like my purpose is part of something bigger and I am part of a solution. And so your mantras might be something more around, I love my community, or I am a vital part of my community. And so mindfulness is really being authentic to you and whatever you need, but listening to your internal intuition. It’s turning into that voice that is so strong that many of us just kind of push down and letting it speak freely.

Peggy  06:44

Well, and in this day and age with social media, and how influenced we are by how many likes…I mean, I fall prey to that as easily as anyone else does. And that I think is a prime cause, again, a lot of depression and loss of confidence. And it defines what we think success is, is what we see. And I work with a lot of career coaching clients who are in a big transition, especially if they lost a position that they loved, due to the economy maybe, or even for performance. But sometimes it might be enough to say, I’m really good at French literature. Like, you might not see how that applies to the world, but, you know, understanding that you have a knowledge base, you’re a subject matter expert, or you’re interesting, or you’re fun. Like, it doesn’t have to be this grand role that you play, or you envision you should be playing either.

Courtney  07:51

Yeah, and that actually comes back to the real roots of “I am.” At the end of the day, if we change our name, we change our job, we change where we live, we still are who we are at the core. And it’s one of…it is the foundational reason for the “I am” mantra, and it’s one I personally use, probably five out of seven days of the week, is just “I am,” I am who I am. And embracing…and embracing that. And there’s so much empowerment in doing that and just, I’m here and I’m doing the best I can.

Peggy  08:29

Mm hmm.

Courtney  08:30

It’s that simple.

Peggy  08:31

And that really goes with the whole concept of, you know, CliftonStrengths, too, that, you know, there’s very few people…it’s, like, I don’t know what the actual statistic is, but you know, one in a million…three million, maybe, that share similar strengths. So there’s commonality in our strengths. And there’s also differences, that, you know, God gave us different gifts. And if we were all the same, it would not be a very interesting world. So we have to accept our own strengths, and accept our co-workers’ strengths and know that, you know, maybe their analytical behavior is something that is annoying to me sometimes, but it also is something that is helping our company run.

Courtney  09:19

I think the big thing with morning mantras is to understand that there is no definition of being successful or not successful at morning mantras. It’s, again, listening to your intuition. What do you need to tell yourself to get ready for the day, and then whatever that…however you like to energize. If it’s taking a shower, if it’s going for a run…I’m going to actually show you if you… I’d love to show you a quick Sun A variation that takes three to five minutes to do, but after you’ve done your morning mantra and your…authentically moved your body to get out of bed. It’s a real quick way to bring energy and really close in that mantra and seal you for success for the rest of the day.

Peggy  10:02

That’s awesome. Good. I’m excited to see it.

Courtney  10:05

Alright, so it’s really easy, and you don’t actually need a mat, but I am going to use my mat. I’m gonna take this off so you can see what I’m doing. So just come into the top of your mat. On a big inhale up, shining up to the sky. Exhale down. Rooting your hands onto the mat step and back to plank, engaging the core, show that you’re strong. You can either lower down to Chaturanga, which is essentially a push up, or all the way flat on your belly. Inhale, heart back up to the sky. Exhale into down dog. Taking three to five breaths, inhaling and exhaling. And when you’re ready, look forward, step to the front of your mat. Inhale back up. And exhale, hands down to heart center.

Peggy  11:00

Awesome.

Courtney  11:01

Doing that three to five times will really boost…you’re going to feel the heat rise in your body from the inside out. And you’re going to be ready to go from an energetic perspective. And you’ve already set your mind, from a mindfulness perspective, with your morning mantra. And success should be all yours to accomplish throughout your day.

Peggy  11:20

Great. That is great. I should have actually done it with you. And now it’s giving me an idea, that maybe we do need to do, like, a live yoga session that we could offer to our listeners to at some point. So that might be something to look forward to down the road.

Courtney  11:35

I would love that.

Peggy  11:36

Great. And if anybody would like to reach out to me, I can certainly put you in touch with Courtney as well. And if you have any questions about really being JoyPowered® and more about that term, or creating JoyPowered® workspaces, it’s something that we are very passionate about at Purple Ink. My email is Peggy – P-E-G-G-Y – at Purple Ink – with a K – LLC dot com. Thanks for coming together today. Courtney, shall we end in namaste?

Courtney  12:11

Yeah, so why don’t we just inhale arms up. Exhale, palms down to heart center. Namaste, friends.

Peggy  12:19

Namaste.