For years I had a mantra:
Peace, calm and tranquility
I left it everywhere I worked, I knew it in many languages and I said it all the time.
It worked; in the most stressful job I had then, I became calmer. As I became calmer, my head seemed to relax and everything and everyone around me became calmer. Or I felt they did, and they certainly did in their interactions with me. The opposite of a vicious circle!
In difficult times in my life, my mantra would take me to a meditative place in a second. It took me somewhere I could breathe and step out for a moment.
I see people from those jobs and times still, and some are even using the mantra I left - a better leaving gift than the electric stapler I left a few offices!
So when did I stop? Why did I stop?
Today it's time to get it out again. I'm in a good place now. I've had some rough moments and I've survived them. I like how I feel, how I relax into what comes along, and how I can observe the world happening around me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very much in the world, but I also seem able, at the moment, to step back from it.
So time to bring back my mantra and stay here.