Mantra & Its Role in Healing

Meditation requires the individual to concentrate or reflect in order to relax the body and ease the mind. This type of self-hypnosis works well with traditional medicines in order to aid the self-healing process. Meditation encompasses a broad spectrum of relaxation techniques spanning from clearing the mind of all conscious thoughts to visual imagery or focusing on one particular word or image. While typical meditation requires stillness, others such as martial arts involve various movements.

Mantra,  the continuous repetition of a word or phrase, forces the individual to focus on a single thought, thus preventing other distracting thoughts. Other forms of meditation allow the mind to flutter, acknowledging every thought without judging its importance while active meditation includes tau chi and qigong.

A saying from the Vedas states that “Speech is the essence of humanity”.  This correlates with the definition of Mantra. During a Mantra yoga session, words are phrases are chanted thoughtfully and with attention to bring a physical effect. Mantras can be used to help ease the mind for any matter. They can be applied to change a certain incident or to regain a healthy state of well-being. Mantras are specifically made to produce a certain intent and vibration to promote a certain state of meditation. They are normally chanted until the mind, body, and emotions are transcended and the subconscious is revealed.

This type of meditation and yoga is used to bring the mind from its wandering state, to a more relaxed and focused one. The use has been anecdotally and scientifically proven to help in the recovery process of many ailments and diseases.

This traditional practice has a long history of success, but has been overlooked by some since many populations rely of medicalized practices. Not only have people returned to Mantra yoga or meditation to alleviate everyday stresses, but they have used the technique to relax the body and focus on healing.

Many doctors today have been recommending patients with a low-survivability rate cancer, such as non-hodgkin’s lymphoma or pleural mesothelioma, to adopt Mantra yoga, acupuncture, or another complementary therapy to go along with conventional treatments. Many have claimed to recover faster or that the symptoms of treatments are alleviated from these techniques.

To use this effective form of meditation and body healing, many listen to healing music that will provide the desired effect of Mantra yoga. Some musical examples of this music can be heard on Kirtan artist Lea Longo’s CD, Zen Voyage. This selection on this album is great for the yoga or massage therapy session, the office, or when one wishes to come back to a place of inner peace, a meditative state, or simply home, OM.

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About the Author:

Allison Brooks-a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi, with a B.S. in Biomedical Anthropology, her main focus is on the effects of biomedicalization on different cultures and anthropology.