6 Healing Mantras for Recovery

I've come up with many different mantras for recovery in the past few years, and even though it might feel like they're just words, I've noticed that they actually make a huge difference in how I feel about myself and my recovery journey. Today I want to share some of those mantras with you, and I hope at least one of them strikes a chord with you. If you find one you like, try repeating it to yourself any time your recovery is challenged, or even just when you get up in the morning and go to bed at night. These mantras for recovery are now yours; use them however you need.

Why I Use Mantras for Recovery

I like to use mantras for recovery because I've always been the kind of person who talks to herself out loud. Talking to myself helps me process things, and if I'm only saying negative things to myself, that's what my brain is going to process and believe. So a few years ago, I started making a conscious effort to start saying helpful, healthy things whenever I could.

My first mantra was simply, "I am human." Sometimes when my mental illness gets really bad, I feel like I'm some kind of demon, some horrible, evil creature designed for failure and destruction. So, I started telling myself something simple and true: I am human. In time, I developed other mantras for dealing with some of my other mental illness symptoms, and now I want to share them with you.

Mantras for Recovery from Mental Illness

1. I am the expert on me. I like this mantra because it reminds me that, while it's okay to take others' opinions into account, at the end of the day, I know myself, and I can trust myself. This is something I've struggled with for a long time, and I've found this mantra very helpful.
2. It is not my job to be convenient. This is such a powerful mantra for anyone who has been conditioned to feel small. Whether it's societal pressure or a problematic interpersonal relationship, being forced to shrink yourself is an awful feeling. This mantra has helped me remember that my job is to be myself, inconvenient or not.
3. I am lovable simply because I exist. This mantra is so important for me because it reminds me that my worth is not affected by my actions. My actions matter, but they don't affect whether or not I'm lovable. Simply by being a person, I am lovable. Sometimes I really need this reminder, and this mantra has been incredibly helpful.
4. I have agency over my life. Sometimes, when we've been dealing with mental illness for so long, it can start to feel like the mental illness runs the show, and we're just watching our lives play out. This mantra helps remind me that I'm the one in charge of my life. Sometimes mental illness makes certain things harder, or even impossible, but I still get to choose how to react to those difficulties.
5. I am exactly enough, not too much, not too little. Somehow, I often feel like I am both too much and not enough. I feel like I'm always doing or being the wrong thing, but recovery has taught me that in reality, I am exactly enough just by nature of being myself. I'm not meant to be anyone else, I'm meant to be me, and there's no wrong way to do that.
6. I am making progress. This mantra has really helped me through dark times when I feel like I've made no progress over the last few years, and I'm every bit as broken as I felt when I started my recovery journey. This mantra reminds me of the truth: I have spent these years making tremendous progress.

Do you ever use mantras for recovery to soothe your mind and remind yourself of the truth? I hope these mantras can be useful to you, and let me know if you have your own mantras in the comments below.