An Excerpt from Life Purpose Boot Camp by Eric Maisel
Potentially the most useful and powerful mantra is your own name. What word or sound does a better job of carrying your life purposes, your identity, and your intentions? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have your name do this work? However, if “Dan” or “Andrea” conjures only your anxieties, your shortcomings, or your regrets, then “Dan” or “Andrea” will hardly work as your life purpose mantra. On the other hand, if you are actively working on upgrading your personality by becoming the person who makes herself proud by her efforts, then your name might receive an equal upgrade.
People have remarkably variable and typically very strong reactions, both negative and positive, to using their name as their life purpose mantra. Aneesah, a painter from the Netherlands, reported on how she turned her name into an acronym:
I have had some bad experiences with my name. It is Persian and means “the affectionate one.” I used to be proud of this until people took advantage of my innocence and generous nature and my family expected me to put up with abuse and to give into a bullying sibling by being “the affectionate one.”
The narcissist I married started using my family pet name, the short form of my name, Anee, to feign intimacy and to manipulate me. Other times he would bring a tone of exasperation when using my name so as to intimidate me into not asking questions. Finally I stood up for myself and announced that I would not tolerate having my name used in that way, and he got the message. I am slowly making peace with my name and I have been considering using it as my life purpose mantra.
This week I started playing with my name as an acronym to start bringing some positive feelings into it and to have my name stand for what I want it to stand for. Every day I worked on using my name in ways that upgrade my personality and help me heal all those “meaning leaks” around my name. I played with each letter and expanded my first ideas into incantations and affirmations. I came up with the following:
A = I awaken to freedom.
N = I nominate myself to make meaning.
E= I am exceptional and prove the exception.
E = I embrace this moment.
S = I step into a resourceful state.
A = Appreciation rules!
H = I return home to self-compassion, and strength.
I believe that my name, when used in this way, will help me focus on what’s meaningful, serve to reduce my anxiety, and bring me more contentment. Sometimes I’ll focus on the letters in order, and other times I’ll focus on just one letter and make a kind of game of it. Today I also noticed the following: that my name has seven letters, which is particularly useful, since my life purpose icon has seven segments, each of which stands for a particular stage of my journey. So I am discovering new, resourceful, and enriching ways to make use of what I am learning!
Kimberly, a singer-songwriter from Nashville, explained how she combined using her name and her life purpose icon:
I had chosen a rocket as an icon for my life purpose. My favorite fantasy is to see the Earth from space. I want to build meaning in my life by living and helping others to live in the whole world, to explore beyond everyday limits, to reach what’s just out of sight. I chose the rocket to remind me of my purpose because, just as ships are built to sail the seas rather than to languish in harbors, rockets are built to blast off rather than to stand on the launchpad. Mistakes will be made, postponements and problems will arise, but persistence pays off when we blaze into the unknown.
I put a rocket charm on my key ring and a large picture of the Mars Explorer rocket on my wall chart. Both remind me — sometimes rather unexpectedly during the day — that I am built for breaking boundaries, both those of inner space and those of outer space. Not everyone will understand. Not every friend will cheer me on or go with me. But I will meet other pilots who share my enthusiasm for an expanding consciousness and a meaningful mission. Oh, by the way, I named my rocket charm the Kimberly.
So it makes perfect sense to me to use “Kimberly” as my life purpose mantra. I can tell that using my name as an incantation will help to calm and also to excite me; it will prompt me to forgive myself and to hold myself accountable; and it will push me to explore or to build boundaries as needed. The Kimberly stands for my available personality, for that person who can love, support, nurture, guide, protect, and remind me that my purpose is to make meaning in this life.
Eric Maisel, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and the author of Life Purpose Boot Camp and numerous other titles including Mastering Creative Anxiety, Brainstorm, Coaching the Artist Within, and Rethinking Depression. Visit him online at ericmaisel.com.
Adapted from the book Life Purpose Boot Camp ©2014 by Eric Maisel. Published with permission of New World Library.com.