What’s Your Mantra? The Healing Sounds in the Energy of Your Voice by Lani Reagan
If you do not use any mantra yet, or don’t realize the power in using mantra, perhaps what I share here will open you up to the possibilities and turn you on to the power that resides within you.
“First God as Being. From Being comes Mind.
From Mind comes Desire. From Desire comes Will.
From Will comes the Word. From the Word comes everything else.”
~Thomas Ashely-Farrand
There was a time when I couldn’t fathom there was any healing energy in my voice. A time when I only related to the physical world as the main construct for my daily reality, along with the generational religious training which allowed me to understand only a small measure of the unseen spiritual life all humans are endowed with. I would have scoffed at the notion that the sound of my voice had any impact on healing, or on the world around me.
Fast forward to today, where I can absolutely say that energy rests in the sound of not just my voice, but yours too, and in any other vibratory eminence one can hear or make. Energy that can be used for healing and a multitude of other purposes dances forth from our vocal cords to create our realities from the most well intended to the most mundane and least affirming thought, as we move through our everyday moments. If you do not use any mantra yet, or don’t realize the power in using mantra, perhaps what I share here will open you up to the possibilities and turn you on to the power that resides within you.
Manifest your Intentions with Sound
The field of psychoacoustics or the study of sound and its impact on the human body, has already established that sound frequencies have notable effects on the brain and neurology in a variety of physiological, mental and emotional ways. Sound can be used to agitate or heal, depending on the arrangement of the sounds as well as the intentions we hold as we speak or as music is played.
The ancient yogi’s wrote and taught about the power of words to heal and manifest, way before the field of psychoacoustics came into being. While many sections of the Bible speak of the word being a powerful manifesting tool, the ancient sages of the east gave us specifics on soundings and the use of mantras for a host of benefits physical, mental and emotional.
So what is a mantra and how can you use it to heal, grow and manifest? Mantra is a sanskrit word derived from “man” which means “to think” and “tra” meaning “tool”. It’s often used to define a word or set of words chosen as a point of focus or a goal to aim for. Affirmations can be termed mantras when we use them repeatedly and with focus. The second aspect of mantra has to do with what the ancient Hindu sages outlined in a more detailed degree of specificity, that a host of other syllables and harmonics can have a physiological healing effect on the body as well as an enhancement of a person’s state of mind, and thus actions. (Pick up Ashley-Farrand’s book Healing Mantras to learn the wide scope of these.)
I use both aspects of mantra, choosing to craft my own affirmations. I also design custom affirmations for clients that are tailored to fit their needs. When it comes to the second aspect of mantra and using specific sounds and syllables, I use a few I’m sharing with you here for a variety of purposes. If you are not using these basic mantras I believe you are missing out on a very effective tool to help you maintain emotional, mental and physical wellness.
The Power of "OM"
According to the ancient sages and sacred texts, the basic primordial sound is OM, signifying the eminence of all matter. Om has a particularly clarifying effect and is a super powerful mantra to use to decrease pain and create stillness in the mind, as does reciting the rosary, according to a 2001 study in Italy, published in the National Library of Medicine.
Once when I had badly scraped my hand on the edge of a descending back trunk corner of my car, my only option for healing, due to my hands being full, was to chant “OM” over it. I was in a lot of pain and if my other hand had been free, (I was carrying a bundle of laundry in my arms, across the street to my doorway) I would have opted to do some energy sweeping movements with my other hand. However, instinctively, because it hurt a lot, I spontaneously started to OM over my hand as my arms were wrapped around the laundry basket. I Om’d loudly and very close to my hand so that I could feel the vibration of my voice on my skin.
By the 3rd Om the pain was decreasing and by the 7th Om, it was feeling largely relieved. I had never experienced such a palpable shift in physical pain before using OM, but it only left me more convinced that the chanting of OM impacts our beings in ways our conscious minds might only faintly recognize. If it could do that for my throbbing hand, that I was sure would swell and bruise, but didn’t, imagine what it might be able to do for you if you use it for pain relief regularly and often. That’s the message of Thomas Ashley-Ferrand’s book, Healing Mantras, which discloses the many derailed soundings that are power packed to meet all kinds of purposes.
Another mantra I use is “So Ham”, or I am that I AM. The chanting of this mantra will vivify your auric field with more soul energy and leave you feeling peaceful and more confident. It’s also very stilling to the mind if you recite it with slowness and pauses. I use this mantra while I’m hiking as it makes me feel more expanded and in a place of Oneness with all of my surroundings. It takes me back to a point of fullness and confidence so that I can keep giving and doing what I do best.
Start Small and Gradually Build Your Strength
How do you know if a mantra is working? You have to practice awareness to assess, but even more impactful is rating the intensity of a discomfort you’re having on a scale of 1-10, 10 being most intense. After you recite the mantra 7-9 times, simply use the number as a state of reference, and see if the rating has changed. If the number has lowered and the discomfort has lessened, you can know it’s been effective and you may decide to recite it another 7-9x’s to increase the rate of improvement.
Is there such a thing as overusing a mantra? The answer is yes, depending on what you are chanting and the degree of attachment you have to a given condition. But it’s ok to work up to certain repetitions to gradually build up your auric strength to hold more energy. Start with a number of times that’s easy for you to sit still with, then increase it gradually. See if you don’t feel a bit lighter, a bit more capable, more beautiful, and more in love with life. Only you can experiment to see how it feels & moves you. If you are in need of a shift, I encourage you to employ the use of mantra to address any part of life you want fine-tuned. Wishing you all good things as you think about and set to using mantra to change your life and change your world.
