Maia Thom - Just Breathe: Eleven Mantras + Tools for Heart Healing

just breathe

eleven mantras + tools for heart healing

maia thom

just breathe: eleven mantras + tools for heart healing

Copyright 2020 by maia thom

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

introduction

for everyone out there

who is showing up for themselves

to heal + do the work

I see you

why eleven?

my mother asked me this question when I told her of my idea to create this short collection of the mantras, thoughts + practices Ive been sitting with recently.

there are many sacred numbers, to be sure. three is a sacred number we look at the ancient religions, the trinities imbued in our lives and cultures, natural and manmade alike, and we see just how important it is. seven is a sacred number, a number of renewal, ritual, holiness and relationships. nine is a lucky number, a number of good fortune it indicates change is coming and it will benefit all of humanity; it is tolerant of others, and it is wise.

so why eleven?

I surprised myself with the answer. I shrugged, eleven is the number of Friendship. my mother was surprised, she hadnt heard this before. I went on to explain how in astrology, the eleventh sign of the zodiac, Aquarius, is the sign that rules the individual within the collective while the eleventh house rules friendship. this energy is eccentric and forward-thinking, here to lead us into the future in a new way that will benefit all. it is curious and stubborn but also extremely intelligent; and best of all, eleven is not here to fit in. it is here to embody all of itself and show us how to do so in the process.

regardless of whether or not you believe in astrology, my intention in creating this book was just that: friendship. connection. I wanted to make something that would remind people that theyre not alone in the messiness of life that were all just figuring it out, and its so much more fun if we are able figure it out together.

in the midst of the chaos of 2020, here is a space for you to reconnect with your heart and begin embodying all that you are.

in these pages, youll find a series of mantras + tools that Ive been using to build a strong foundation within myself, ones I come back to time and time again. I hope they spark something in you. this is also an invitation for you to begin building your own toolbox what works for one person may not work for everyone, and that is okay. but you are so much more capable than you think. you can do this.

I cant wait to see all you will become.

in friendship and love,

maia xx

one

where are you hiding?

something Ive been sitting with a lot recently is my secret desire to be seen.

at some point when I was a child, I picked up the patterning that this desire was selfish. that was the last thing I wanted to be, so I grew to block myself from being seen in a big way.

whenever I would start to succeed, old habits would come in to sabotage me, self-doubt would take over as I believed I wasnt worthy of love, of support, of being seen. the things I had to say werent valuable, because I was too young.

whenever someone would offer me a compliment, I would respond, really? you really think Im good at this? or I would find some way to deflect it.

sometimes I think we run away from the things were good at because it makes us uncomfortable. we take for granted that which comes easily to us it feels so natural, like breathing, so we decide therefore it must be less valuable. we were taught value only what comes through struggle and hard work, or we simply compare ourselves to other people, seeing them fill the spaces where we feel inadequate and longing to be as good as they are at what they do.

the beliefs surrounding this patterning are vast and complex: maybe we fear being seen because it was dangerous when we were young; hiding became a defense mechanism to keep us safe in the midst of trauma. maybe we learned that we were supposed to fit in, because if we didnt none of the other kids would like us I know I lived that one. maybe we were told we werent worthy of success because of circumstances outside of our control, or because the adults in our life were carrying so much of their own trauma, allowing us to show up in our brilliance would have been too painful to watch.

there are a million reasons that can keep us small, but the first thing to know is that awareness is the first step.

the world needs you to show up in your brilliance, as you are.

what would happen if you didnt fail?

what would happen if you received everything youve always wanted?

sometimes we fear our success even more than we fear our failure because success means change. stepping into our light may put us in situations unfamiliar and unknown. but the opposite, to remain in our smallness, is an incredibly unsatisfying way to live.

when you show up in your light, you show others its possible to do the same.

what could you become if you allowed yourself to step into all youre meant to be?

get curious of your brilliant light + follow where it leads.

exercise:

write down 11 things you appreciate in others these can be qualities, skills, accomplishments etc. now ask yourself (or someone you trust) which of these do you already embody? often when we see things in others, its because they already exist within ourselves. see yourself as you are, truly.

two

sometimes its hard to be patient with the process.

Im not sure when it happened but at some point, in my teenage years, I picked up the belief that its not okay to stop, sit still, or rest for any prolonged period of time. if you stop, you might never start again. sitting still made you lazy. life is short, you must fill every moment of your time or else youre wasting it.

we live in a society, too, where this way of life is the norm. every year around the beginning of January, we set goals and plan our lives and seek to learn how we can be more productive with our time, as if time is finite and we never have enough of it.

the problem with this mentality is that eventually, you burn out. this happened to me just before I turned twenty, after a particularly rough four months filled with several curveballs. my body said NO MORE and demanded that I rest. so, somewhat begrudgingly, I did. as I did, as Ive spent more and more time with myself in the past two years, life has reminded me of something beautiful: Ive always had a deep love for sitting still. Id just forgotten.

when I was a child, I had no problem spending hours doing nothing. on long car rides, I would sit and look out the window, just watching the landscape and enjoying the worlds in my head. I liked to sing a lot and play pretend. with such an active imagination, I was hardly ever bored and I was an only child, so most of the time there was no one else to entertain me. I was quite comfortable being alone.

as I grew older, I inherited this guilt around time spent not being productive. it became increasingly uncomfortable for me to sit still for long stretches of time, and I measured the value in my days by how much I got done. I have a bit of an excessive streak and so I took this to the extreme, yet I didnt see a problem with how I was living. I was too deeply entrenched in the doing to see how unhappy I had become.