Meditating is one of the best ways to achieve a correct balance between mind, body and spirit, in addition to relaxing and being more fulfilled with ourselves. There are many ways to perform meditations, but certainly one of the most effective according to its practitioners is with mantras. “Man” means thought or thought, and in turn “tra” is to protect or liberate. In this way, mantra could be translated as “liberating thought” or “protective thinking”, depending on what the mantra in question is or how it is used.
Thus, these chants protect us against the constant fluctuations of our minds. Normally, these swings are usually caused by stress and energy blockages, which makes the mantras closely related to the 7 chakras. If you want to know how to meditate with mantras, don't miss this article.
What are mantras and what are they for?
Mantras are a series of words that are sung or recited. By pronouncing them, they create a very subtle and powerful vibration full of energy capable of gradually modifying aspects of our interior. The most important mantra of all is the Om, as it is considered the vibration from which the entire universe originated. Mantra meditation is used in various cultures and religions globally. In this way, different mantras are known depending on their origin or ideology:
- Christian mantras.
- Tibetan mantras.
- Buddhist mantras.
- Vedic mantras.
However, the best known are the last two, containing the Vedic Sanskrit words, that is, texts much earlier than Buddhism. The function of these mantras will depend on what they are used for, either to awaken consciousness or to calm our mind.
The Benefits of Listening and Chanting Mantras
By reciting or listening to a mantra, a person attracts those qualities to his mind. Adherents of the energetic and spiritual world claim that many of the diseases we suffer from are caused by stress, unhealed emotions and energy blockages. In this way, listening to or chanting mantras will help us in the following ways:
- Relieves anxiety and depression: Altered states of mind and heart, such as anxiety and depression, can be purified and corrected little by little with the use of this type of meditation.
- Lower the rhythm of the pulsations: when meditating with mantras we will feel that our pulsations are slowing down, until we manage to calm down completely. Therefore, we will also be lowering our blood pressure.
- Combat stress: the day to day can overload us with tensions and stress. Many times, we remain tense and stressed because we cannot disconnect from our work or our worries. With mantras, we will quiet our mind because we will practice the here and now. Likewise, de-stressing our blood will also lower our level of cortisol in the blood.
- Strengthens the immune system: this is closely linked to emotions and is mainly found in the intestines. When we are nervous, our digestive system contracts, sometimes causing us to feel bad and, therefore, our immune system cannot work properly. In this way, if we manage to relax with the mantras, our immune system will also become stronger.
- Improves concentration, motivation and productivity: a clear mind, free of worries, can be more creative and more focused on certain aspects, which is perfect if we want, too, to improve our self-awareness.
- You will eliminate subconscious patterns from your mind: your old beliefs, everything you learned wrongly and everything that negatively affects your unconscious, can be purified with the help of mantras.
- Fights insomnia: this is strongly related to anxieties and unconscious problems. Working with mantras could help you with practice to sleep better.
- Reduce levels
- Improves lymphatic circulation: since reciting a mantra helps to free us mentally and spiritually, over time it will also do so organically. Our body will be cleansed of toxins, favoring, among others, blood circulation.
- Increases the level of endorphins – this is the best of all. By reciting or listening to these songs, our brain will secrete the so-called hormones of happiness, so our mood will be much better and we will feel a great peace and well-being.
Mantra Meditation for Beginners
To learn to recite a mantra correctly, you must be clear about some things that we will see below.
How to use mantras
Mantras can be recited aloud, heard or simply thought. It is best to recite them, since this way we will be generating vibration in our body and attracting energy with our voice. However, you can hear and recite one mantra at a time. Many people, however, choose to recite them mentally, which is ideal in case you go down the street or do not want to make noise at night.
To recite the mantras correctly, we must sit in a comfortable position, with our backs straight, our eyes closed and, if possible, do not cross legs or arms so as not to block the energy. Then, we must repeat the chosen mantra lengthening the sounds. If we are not clear on how to do it, we can search for mantras on YouTube and follow them as an example.
Objective of the mantra
This is another aspect that we must be clear from the beginning is what we want to use the mantra for, that is, what is our goal: to heal ourselves? Attract love? To get everything right? Achieve balance and harmony?
This is important because depending on what our intention is, one type of mantra or another will be more suitable for us.
Mantras to meditate
Although the Om is the most important and the best known, there are many other types of mantras to choose from. However, we leave you the most recurrent:
- Om: This is the most basic mantra of all. They consider it the sound of the universe, the one that gave rise to all things and the one that contains the rest of the sounds, just as the white color contains all the colors.
- Om Ah Hum: on the other hand, this is used to enhance concentration and to purify the place before true meditation.
- Om Tare Tuttare: This other mantra makes a call to inner strength, thus helping to remove our inner obstacles. In addition, it fosters faith and courage.
- Om Namah Shivaya: This mantra invokes Shiva, the divinity that embodies well-being and happiness.
- Om Mani Padme Hum: This is a powerful mantra that invokes the union of the universal with the individual, as well as with essential wisdom. In this way, the divine, the original essence and the being are being called.
Mantras in Spanish
Mantras are not just Sanskrit words. It's not even a closed list! You can create your own mantras if you wish. Here are some mantras in Spanish so that you can also incorporate them into your meditation:
- I'm here, now.
- Everything is going well.
- My body is purified.
- I am strong and I am capable.
- I'm sure.
Do mantras work?
It has been shown that sounds affect people in a positive or negative way. In the same way, the soft vibrations calm our nerves in themselves; that is why many people get sleepy when they travel by car or other means of transport.
Many claim to have been cured of different diseases with the help of mantras, but, yes, with the passage of time and concentration. This is also stated by Tibetan yogis, who say that with meditation you can master the body and self-heal thoroughly. Following all this we could say that yes, mantras work.
Decrees and affirmations
Something very similar to mantras are decrees and affirmations. In both cases it is a matter of continuously repeating a word or a phrase, so that our mind ends up “believing” that comment and ends up affecting us positively, or, according to other ideologies, we would be here making a call to the universe to fulfill our request.
If you liked this article on how to meditate with mantras and would like to try the affirmations and decrees, we leave you below an article that could interest you on How to use positive affirmations day by day.
