You might have come across the phrase ‘Om’ at a yoga studio; you might even have noticed a group of people around you chanting it while they move through their poses. Have you ever wondered what mantras are and what they’re used for? Let’s look at what mantras are and how students can use them for self-care.
MANTRAS BEYOND THE STUDIO
Before they were commonplace in yoga studios, mantras have been used for thousands of years, and millions of practitioners’ chants have strengthened the energies that have been generated through chanting these mantras. When you repeat a mantra, you connect to the collective energy created by all the practitioners who chanted the mantra before you. Every person in history who has chanted this mantra contributes their energies to yours. Chanting a mantra is also helping the mantra to grow in power and spread further by adding power to it.
You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘Your words have power,’ meaning the power of your words lies in the vibration created when you speak them. So when you chant a mantra, it resounds in your body and resonates with your inner vibration. In short, the words you use to describe yourself can affect your outer vibration and how other people perceive you—and your internal state.
Therefore, words have an incredible impact to harm and also heal, grow, expand, and cultivate feelings of oneness, belonging, acceptance, and love. Mantras harness the power of sound vibrations by repeating specific sounds to magnify and integrate the vibration.
By repeating a specific mantra in a yoga studio, you influence your vibration and the vibrations of everyone around you—and perhaps even the world at large. In yoga, mantras are usually chanted in the ancient Sanskrit language, where the word comes from. The term consists of man, which means ‘to think’, and tra, which means ‘free from bondage’. Combined, this term means that the repetition of a mantra empowers you to break free from bondages imagined by your mind.
While you can chant in any language of your choosing, the vibrations of specific dialects can deliver more powerful psychological and spiritual effects. It is all about the vibrations created by the particular sounds and the meaning of the words.
In the context of yoga studios, mantras are tools to help people achieve greater freedom and positivity in their lives. There are many different mantras, and they should be used for the specific needs of the person that’s chanting.
THE IMPACT MANTRAS HAVE ON ONES’ HEALTH
A study published in Brain and Behavior discovered that even silently repeating a single word calms the system in your brain, which results in unproductive thoughts. These include remembering the past or thinking about an uncertain future.
Additionally, Doyou.com shares how mantras affect your endocrine system. When practitioners chant, they touch the palate with their tongue, which transfers vibrations to your hypothalamus, thalamus, and pituitary gland (which controls many other body parts, hormones, and chemicals). Through this process of vibration transference, your body is led to release chemicals and hormones that promote healing!
MASTER MANTRAS AT THIS YOGA STUDIO IN LONDON
To achieve inner peace through the power of yoga, it is not enough to have a quiet space all to yourself. You must also learn to chant the proper mantras to get the best out of the session. Be sure that the yoga studio you’ll sign up for has an expert teacher who can guide you through all the correct poses and chants to destress and get a good workout.
Join a class at The Power Yoga Co. today! We’re a yoga studio in London that offers more than 90 classes each week. Sign up now!