In yoga classes we typically hear or chant mantras but, do you know why? It isn’t just the passing down of stories. Although, many of the chants are educational and awaken the mind to a deeper awareness, mantras are comprised of so much more.
Mantras have a major effect on the body at a cellular level.
Taking us back to the basics of science, sound emits vibration sound waves. Just like a musical instrument, our voice and tones of our voice emit unique vibrations or sound waves. The sound waves from our voice in turn cause a molecular vibration within the cells of all things. In particular, the sound of our own voice vibrating causes and even greater impact to our body due to the sound being emitted from the body itself. Granted, just being around others or listening to music, will cause a vibration of the cells as well. I’m sure we have all been at a concert where we have felt the vibration of the music within us. It is one of the reasons we all love music so much but we most likely haven’t stepped back and fully looked at this before.
So why is this so important to understand?
The sound of our voices have so much power it can literally rearrange our molecular structure for the better or for the worse depending on how we use our voice.
There is a whole field of yoga centered on sound. It is called Naad Yoga. The words Naad Yoga mean the essence of sound through union. In this form of yoga sound vibrations are used to uplift the body and to tune it into the sound of creation or the universal sound Anahat in Sanskrit. The definition is a little deep but, I like to look at it in a simpler way.
I’ve found mantras best for the following uses;
- Helping us to relax and center the mind;
- A great way to release emotion and bring about an inner peace;
- A deeper spiritual connection;
- Help to align the body chakra system; and
- A way to activate our endocrine system (hypothalamus, thalamus and pituitary gland).
Each of these is important and I know I haven’t even touched on the full impact of mantras but, I would like to share a bit more on why the endocrine system is important. The endocrine system manages our chemical hormones. As we balance the endocrine system we bring about balance in our body that creates a healing affect. Who would have thought our voices could have such an impact to our hormones? If you know all the impacts of hormones being off, that was a big statement. I could list a bunch of every day issues we have or others we know have right about now but, I’m sure it wouldn’t go over so well with the medical industry. I just hope you are picking up on what I’m saying without fully listing everything.
If you are anything like me, learning about mantras and how they affect us changed my perception of mantras. At first I found it all so strange and thought mantas were only for hippy people. I really didn’t understand the value within mantras. I hope you have found this post educational and that you will look at mantras or chanting music in a new light because of it.