7 Mantras to Enhance Your Yoga Practice
Does your yoga practice need a little spice??
Using mantras might just be the ingredient you're missing! Mantras can bring more intentionality and SOUL to your yoga practice. I'll give you a little background as to why mantras are so powerful AND I'll give you my top 7 favorite mantras.
WHY ARE MANTRAS SO SPECIAL??
Mantra's are used like affirmations. We can repeat them out loud or in our heads. Our minds are moving a million miles a minute, and we think thousands of thoughts every single day. 95% of which are repetitive thoughts from the day before. If we want to feel differently, we have to start with our thoughts. And mantra's can be used to focus our thoughts, and therefore change how we feel.
Sanskrit is a 3500 year old ancient Indian language. It's believed that chanting or repeating mantras in sanskrit is more powerful or potent. The reasoning is that people for thousands of years have been using these mantra's, which create a specific vibration and energy. When we chant mantras in sanskrit …
We're accessing the energy and vibration that so many others for generations have been tapping into.
"The purpose of all meditative mantras is to enable seekers to go beyond the confines of the mind and have a direct experience of their own essential nature... It is not the meaning of the mantra but its subtle vibrations that lead (or carry) the meditator to the center of silence within. This process cannot be understood intellectually. It must be experienced personally."- Yoga International.
My 7 Favorite Sanskrit Mantras
Aham Prema- "I Am Love". This mantra is referring to love in a Bhakti sense, not in romantic way. Love meaning devotion, compassion, grace, acceptance, and oneness. I am is a powerful way to structure an intention or mantra. Because you're declaring it to be true, the universe can co-create with you to make it true.
Om- The sound of creation or the universe itself. The vibration of OM represents our reality and interconnectedness to all beings. It is the sound of the cycle of birth and death. All that is, was, and ever will be.
Om Shanti Om- Is a chant for universal peace- Peace of mind, speech, and body. This can also be used as a greeting or salutation.
Sat Chit Ananda- "Truth, Consciousness, Bliss". To achieve Sat Chit Ananda is to achieve the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey.
Om Mani Padme Hum- A chant for purification. Releasing attachments, judgements, jealousy, and ignorance.
Om Gam Ganapataye Namah- A chant to channeling the spirit of the Hindu god Ganesh who was the overcomer of obstacles, and creator of blessed new beginnings.
Aham Brahmasmi- "I am Divine" or "I am The Universe.
I have the first mantra, I AM LOVE- Aham Prema, tattooed on my wrist. It’s a daily reminder to act and live in accordance to the divine love that I am, and that we all are.
Have fun with these mantras! Enhance your yoga practice by setting your intention around a mantra. Use mantras while meditating. Repeating mantras 108 times has significant spiritual meaning as 108 is a very auspicious number in the ancient wisdom traditions. Write them. Repeat them. Be creative!
Lots of Love, Light, & Good Vibes Always.
-Rachael