This month in our classes we’ve been weaving in mudra and mantra as a complement to our asana (movement) practice. There are many benefits to chanting – whether it’s a simple Om or a more complicated mantra. Even repeating a word or phrase in your own language that resonates with you, has many benefits. Here are some:

• It helps connect us with our breath.
• It helps focus the mind.
• It allows us to tap into a different vibrational energy.
• It can help us feel more peaceful and more energized.
• It can even help heal us.

I’ve found a few definitions of mantra that have resonated with me so I thought I’d share them with you.

The word “mantra” derives from the Sanskrit words manas, or “mind,” and trai, “to protect” or “to set free from.” The literal meaning of mantra, therefore, is “to set free from the mind.” From Healing Mantras, by Thomas Ashley-Farrand.

MAN=mind, TRA=tune the vibration. Mantra is a sound current which tunes and controls mental vibration. From Kundalini Yoga, the Flow of Eternal Power by Shakti Parwha Kaur Khalsa.

An article in Yoga Journal shares some insight on the healing power of chanting: “Reciting either Sanskrit mantras or the Ave Maria prayer regulated the breath and synchronized the heart rhythms of 23 participants in a study conducted by Italian researchers. The research team speculated this happened because prayer and mantra slow the breath rate to an optimal six breaths per minute. Both the Buddhist mantra Om mane padme hum and the Ave Maria prayer were used in the study and are generally recited in a single 10-second breath cycle, corresponding to six breaths per minute. In contrast, the average person's breath rate is 16 to 20 breaths per minute, according to Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., a cardiac surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the director of the Heart Institute at Columbia University, who has pioneered the use of complementary therapies for cardiac patients. ‘When your internal metronome slows, you get a variety of beneficial effects," he says, and you also lessen the risk of catastrophic events like heart attacks and strokes.‘” (excerpted from “Om is Where the Heart Is” by Alison Rose Levy, Yoga Journal)

I find it so powerful to chant, particularly the sound of Om, with a group of people. It forges a sense of community – in that moment we realize we’ve all come together to share in this practice together. It removes any feelings of being separate and helps us to reconnect with ourselves and each other. When we are chanting it just feels as though we can lift the roof off the building with our vibrations and good energy – it takes it all to a higher plane.

Let’s just look at Om for a second. It’s actually made up of 3 letters and 4 sounds: A,U,M. The “ah sound, which is the beginning of all sounds, starts in the throat; it then elides with the “ooh” sound in the middle of the mouth to make the “oh” sound; then the lips close as you get to the “mmm” sound. According to Swami Satchidananda, …”A-U-M includes the entire process of sound, and all other sounds are contained in it.” (Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satchidananda translation). And then finally, after chanting Om, we are left with the sound of silence – just pure energy, pure vibration.

The 3 sounds of Om also represent the divine energy of the beginning, middle and end.

A corresponds to the god Brahma, who represents creation, the seed – everything having a beginning.
U corresponds to the god Vishnu, who represents protection, sustaining, growth.
M corresponds to the god Shiva, who represents destruction, completion, a harvest, the end.

So even chanting a seemingly simple OM has tons of meaning behind it.

For me, though, whatever you are chanting, be it a sound, a word or group of words, it’s our connection to that word or group of words and the intention behind it that matters most.

If Sanskrit words don’t resonate with you, find one in your language or another that does, and chant it fully from your heart!

Click here to move and chant with me!