Benefits of Mantras

If you want to bring more peace and focus to your life, mantras can help you.

Mantras are commonly done during a yoga class or as part of meditation practices. Here are some benefits of chanting mantras:

• Be present
• Focus on the moment
• Relieve stress and anxiety
• Get better sleep
• Create new habits
• Get rid of addictive behaviours
• Be more grateful
• Trust life

Mantras in yoga will help you focus your mind. The sound and repetition of the mantra calms the mind and stop it from wandering around. Mantras can help you get rid of overwhelming recurring thoughts, to stay calm by reducing stress and anxiety.

What Are Mantras?

Mantras are sounds considered sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Yoga. The original mantras are in Sanskrit, but today you can find them in various languages. The word mantra in Sanskrit means ‘the thought that liberates and protects’ Mantras are formed by one syllable or a combination of syllables. 

The power of a mantra lies in the sound, in the vibration it produces.  You can chant it in a whisper or in silence. The resonance of the mantra surrounds you when you chant it aloud, and it vibrates inside of you when you chant it silently in your mind. 

Mantras will benefit not only to the person chanting it but also the listener. Chanting a mantra in the right way will help you release energy from your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies. 

A mantra will bring peace, calm, and harmony to your being. It will help you to be present and release habitual patterns of your thinking and behavior.

How Do Mantras Work?

Mantra chanting is not magic, and it’s not the solution to every problem. But, it can help you a great deal if you put your mind and soul into it. You will enjoy the peace and joy it will bring to your heart, and you will experience positive things happening in your life.

It’s quite simple, mantras will work if you chant them. You can utter or chant a mantra aloud, in a whisper or in silence only in your mind. It seems pretty simple, right? First, you set your intention, chant, and voila! You get what you want. 

The power of the mantra comes from the sound vibration itself. Mantras are sacred sounds created by ancient Indian sages and yogis.  They got to hear the sound of the things surrounding them. 

You need to keep in mind two things. One is to chant with the right pronunciation, and two is to set your intention before starting to chant a mantra. The mantra will keep your attention focus. When you focus, your intention gets magnified, and you become one with the mantra

When the passion of your soul is in the mantra, your aim will become real. A mantra will unite your heart with the divine, with the universe, with your true self. As long as a mantra doesn’t become mechanical and turns into a dull repetition, it will have a positive effect on your life.

What Are the Benefits of Mantra Chanting?

There are countless amount of mantras. Every mantra has its own vibration and will affect your body and mind in a certain way. 

In general, mantras will make your body vibrate at a frequency that will bring it into harmony. 

Scientific studies have found that can improve your concentration, help you sleep better, lower your risk of heart disease, boost your immune system. 

Whether mantras are proved or not to work, the best thing to do is for you to try them, to experience if they can be for you. 

Yoga, mantras, and meditation are all experiential. You need to try and feel them for yourself. 

Why Do Mantras Bring Benefits to Your Life?

Mantras affect our physiology by giving a rest to the limbic system. The limbic system is in charge of our emotional response, storage of our memories, and regulation of hormones.  When you are depressed, the deep limbic system is overactive. Mantra chanting deactivates the limbic system. 

Stress, anxiety, and depression are among mental disturbances that we all experience at some point in our lives. What causes them is so varied. The important thing is that the experience is so real our whole being is lost in it.

So, it is our perception that creates feelings and emotions that can bring despair, panic, or joy, and contentment to our life. 

Mantras can help you to be present, to stop your mind from wandering during the time you are chanting. Your mind is focused when you chant. Some mantras will work better to calm your stress, while others are specific to activate your chakras.  

For example, if your intention is to reduce stress and improve your sleep, you will think during your chanting that you are calm and you sleep soundly. Then, you prepare for chanting, keep focused, relax your breathing, and in 10-15 minutes of chanting, you will be disconnected from your worries and the source of your stress. 

Meditation with Mantras

Mantras are tools used during meditation to keep the mind focused and stop it from wandering around. The sound of mantras can help you if you struggle to keep focus during your meditation practice. 

A repetition of a mantra will keep your mind occupied, so you won’t be worrying or getting distracted with your thoughts. In the end, your mind would have had a rest, and you will feel calmer and re-energised. 

The sound of the mantra will get you into a state of trance. If you let the mantra take you, you will flow with the mantra. The meaning of the mantra is not relevant. The power of the mantra lies in its sound.

When you meditate, you are in a state of heightened mental alertness, and at the same time, in a state of physiological relaxation.  The energy of the mantra will flow through your body.

Mantras have many benefits; they relieve stress by calming the mind and helping the release of endorphins. Mantras have the power to regulate alpha, gamma, and delta brainwaves. They can help you to overcome traumas, fears, and phobias. 

In reality, nothing changes; the things you were worried or afraid about before you started to meditate are probably still there. But, your attention is no longer on them. 

You are giving a break to your mind to rest and repair. When you are calmer, things don’t bother you as much, your reactions are less aggressive. You experience more pleasure in your life. It is the law of action and reaction.

If you are more positive and nicer to others, they will react better towards you. If you smile at people, they will smile back at you, well most of the times. Remember, other people also have their own worries and problems to deal with. Their reactions are not of your concern. Only what you do is. 

Mantra Examples

It is imperative to get the pronunciation of the mantra right. If you are new to mantra chanting, it may be better to start with simple one-syllable mantras. One-syllable mantras can bring balance to your whole being. 

AUM

Aum mantra is probably the most well-known mantra of all. It is the sound of the universe. It is used to get into deep meditation. 

The benefits of Aum chanting:

• Strengthening your mind and helping to overcome depression, loneliness, insomnia, and stress.
• Quit bad habits like alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction. 

Aum brings a balance between the emotional and intellectual part of your brain. So, you feel more centered physically and mentally. 

Aum Namah Shivaya

This is one of the most popular Hindu mantras. It is a mantra that chants to Shiva, the supreme destroyer, the one that can help dissolve yourself and bring the wisdom from within yourself. 

It calls your inner wisdom from within and from the universe to guide your life. 

The benefits of chanting Aum Namah Shivaya:

• Brings into balance the 5 elements that form your body. 
  Na- Earth
  Ma- Water
  Si- Fire
  Va- Air
  Ya- Ether or Akash

• Stability to your mind. You will be able to relax and relieve stress from your mind and body. 

At the end of your chanting, you will have a sense of peace and gratitude. You can chant it anytime, anywhere. But it’s best to do it in the morning and in the evening before bed. 

Conclusion

Mantras can have a very positive effect in your life if chant alone or as part of meditation practice. The benefits of mantras lie in their capacity to calm the mind and affect areas in the brain where we store memories, release hormones, and create emotions. 

Mantras can give the space for the brain to break your habitual pattern of thoughts that create stress, worries, fears, addictions. Instead, the moments when your attention is focused, you have the opportunity to go deep in yourself and recover the balance in your life. 

Give mantras a go and experience by yourself the power of mantras. 

Frequently Asked Questions