LE PERLE DE PRIÈRE SÉRÉNITÉ

BuDhaGirl believes in ritual, and prayer happens to be a form of ritual that is that is practiced all over the world and in every religion and contemplative practice. If you don't want to call "prayer", "prayer", you might choose to call it a mantra. Regardless, the end-use is the same.

Personally, for me, the Serenity Prayer is an ever-present daily mantra/prayer that is originally credited to the American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr. I just think he nailed it. With a few words he is bringing to us the presence of a higher force (God) by making us acknowledge that there is indeed something out there bigger than ourselves. Then, he is asking with humility:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Courage to change the things that I can.
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Let's break this down.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
What this says is may "I" have the mental clarity, strength, and health to comprehend and then accept the fact that many things in our life are completely out of our control. Realizing this fact is incredibly powerful because we do not waste our time, resources, and mental suffering trying to change a situation that we simply can't. In a way this relates to the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, by awakening to the idea about the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. The truth is co-related to acceptance.

Courage to change the things I can.
This is asking for the strength to be able to take action. It is again an acknowledgement of having identified things that might be hard for you to tackle, but that there is a path, a way out, that you have the ability to make it happen. It is co-related to the BuDhaGirl intention-setting ritual, where you are identifying what you want, what you need, and are directing your focus to achieve that outcome.

And the wisdom to know the difference.
This is the surrender. How do we arrive at knowing this difference? It is the final acknowledgement that we want to be wise, but that we might need a little help from above. How this help arrives is many times so incredibly unpredictable, unimaginable, and could not be orchestrated if it were not for the universe wanting it so.

The Serenity Prayer bead on our All Weather Bangles® is something I designed, it is exclusive to BuDhaGirl and it is a registered trademark. When designing the bead, I thought about life. I thought about how life is a series of stages and that the road to each of these stages is not a direct line, it is a zigzag. Then I thought of how in each of these stages we must be focused on that particular moment, living fully, very present, in the "now". The tiny dot, in the middle of each zigzag is a representation of a Bindi. The Bindi represents the sixth chakra, the seat of "concealed wisdom". The Bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration...focus. 

BuDhaGirl casts over half a million Serenity Prayer beads annually. Each natural uncoated brass bead carries the idea and belief associated with the Serenity Prayer. We invite you to join us on our journey of discovery and to turn your daily routines into rituals.