FEATURE

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The Power of Your Own Voice

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Special mantras that you can use to feel joy and peace.

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By Andrea Santos

 

During this time of societal instability wouldn’t it be great if you could bring about your own sense of peace and joy? Wouldn’t it be great if you had a tool or technique to help ground yourself against the negativity that causes so much stress to our minds and bodies? The neat thing is that you do have techniques available to you right at your finger-tips or should I say, right within your own voice.

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Science conclusively states that everything that we see is just sound vibrating at varying speeds. All matter is vibration and sound is vibration. If you have the ability to produce sounds then you can affect things; things in you, things within your environment, and things in the world. Since you are made of vibrations, you can use sound to create change. A good way to test this is to see how different you feel when listening to music that is light and positive versus when you listen to music that is dark and has an ugly message. In a very real way, you can use pure tones and bring about your own healing and sense of happiness.

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A place that we can easily access pure tones is within the language of Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a 5,000-year-old language that originated in the northern part of India. Sanskrit is a fascinating science unto itself, as it is a root language and its ancient writings provided not only an amazing spiritual foundation for the world but also a remarkable insight into mathematics, science, medicine, and astronomy. But for the purposes of this discussion, we are going to focus mostly on simple mantras that we can use to improve ourselves. We will be doing a simple form of sound therapy using mantras I will teach you. The tones in Sanskrit have an almost magical and intense effect on things. You will be able to feel their effect on you, but first, we need to talk a little about what they are and how to use these special tones.

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Mantras are a repeated sound. This repeated sound or word should be in Sanskrit and is designed to tame our minds and emotions. Just like in any language, Sanskrit has lots of words, but for this discussion, we are going to focus on simple sounds that you can use. The simplest and most powerful of Sanskrit’s already power mantras are call seed mantras or bija mantras. The use of these potent bija mantras is an amazing practice for all of us and opens the use of mantras to a whole new level. Bija mantras or seed mantras are usually short. They can be chanted multiple times or can be chanted as one long sound.

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What are some neat mantras you can use? There are a couple of neat mantras to get you started. One of my favorite sets of mantras to get people started in chanting Sanskrit and enjoying the benefits of mantra therapy are the semi-vowels in the Sanskrit alphabet. While there are so many wonderful mantras to choose from. I love the semi-vowels in that they are pure, simple tones, they are part of the Sanskrit alphabet, they have meaning and they also correspond to some of the chakras in your body. Chakras are energy centers that when they are awakened can improve your health and increase spiritual awareness. Not only are they significant linguistically, but they are also considered healing mantras in that they affect the well-being of our bodies and minds.

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The semivowels in Sanskrit are 

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Ya corresponds to the heart energy center. This mantra means air and light.

Ra corresponds to the energy center in your solar plexus. The meaning of this mantra is fire.

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La corresponds to the energy center that is at the base of your spine. The meaning of this mantra is the name of the ancient Vedic god Indra.

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Va corresponds to the energy center that is at your sexual center and is in charge of your creativity. The meaning of this mantra is air.

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The “a” in these mantras are short and pronounced like the “u” in the word “up”.

You can use these mantras in a couple of different ways. You can chant them individually, but we prefer the experience when they are chanted together. You can chant them quickly, create a song with them or chant them slowly. My sister and I created a little song to chant them that is really fun. You are welcome to listen to our version here or create your own. However you choose to sing these mantras take notice of how the vibration feels within your own body. Notice your breathing. Place a hand on your chest and feel how it is vibrating with the tones you are creating. You may want to close your eyes so that you can just focus on the sound and the way that feels. While these mantras are really fun to say, you can also bring the mantras inside and meditate on them. The effect will be different in that you are not creating vibrations with your voice, but it is still a calming and centering experience.

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With these Sanskrit seed mantras, you are truly creating good vibrations. You are using your voice to raise your own vibrations and those vibrations go out into your own environment and create more goodness in your world. My sister and I often talk about the concept of the Sanskrit Buzz, which is the experience of heightened awareness and joy that you get when you work with Sanskrit. These special mantras will have you buzzing along as your energy is raised and your mind becomes clear. Your voice along with these Sanskrit mantras makes it easy to step into alignment with the universe and our higher self. Enjoy these special tools to heal yourself and bring about your own peace and joy!