How To Use A Mantra With Dr. Diana Hill

Ever wonder what a mantra is and how to use one? In this skill-building episode, Dr. Diana Hill shares the emerging science behind mantras, offers some simple ones to try, and shows you how to design your own.

Listen and learn:

The impact of mantra on your brain
Simple secular mantras you can try out right away
How to set up a formal and informal mantra practice

Transcript

Breathing in, I have arrived, And breathing out, I am home. That's the mantra along some others that we're going to explore today on this skill building episode of The Wise Effort Show. Welcome back. I'm Dr. Diana Hill, A clinical psychologist. And this episode is short and sweet and to the point like a good mantra that is going to explore how you can use the power of mantra in your life in a real way, In a way that fits for you. If you've been on a retreat with me, You probably know that I love mantras. And I've shared that the first mantra that I ever heard was from Thich Nhat Hanh, Which is more of like a short phrase that you repeat. So I'm going to be using the words mantra and gatha interchangeably here. But when I traveled to Plum Village, There is a big sign in the upper hamlet that says, I have arrived, I am home. So that line, I have arrived, I am home, Became a mantra that I repeated over my life. And I've learned more about the science of mantra over time as to why those particular words were so useful to me, But also how to use a mantra, How to apply it in a way that helps you regulate your nervous system, Helps you stay grounded, And also use it as a way to open yourself in the present moment. Mantras are really being present practices and their tools. So the Sanskrit word mantra has two parts to it, Manas, Which means mind, And tra, Which means tool. It's a mind tool. Much like when you get a new puppy and you're teaching it how to heal, Which I never really did a good job with with our current dog, And I regret it, Mantras teach your mind to heal, That they're words or phrases that you repeat over and over and over again to bring your mind back, Sort of like you would say heal. And just like a puppy, Your mind is going to continuously wander, But the more that you practice a mantra, The more quickly your mind will respond. And I like the word heal and thinking about teaching a puppy how to heal because there's also a very healing aspect of mantras. The healing nature of just having something to turn to that you can repeat, A touchstone that you can use when you feel dysregulated or anxious or when your mind is just going all over the place, As well as the healing nature of the breath and the sound that comes from mantra practice. So today I'm going to teach you a few mantras that you could try out. I'm going to encourage you to find one that fits for you. But first, I want to tell you a little bit about the science of mantra. There's some emerging science around mantra that using a mantra and this form of mantra meditation may deactivate the default mode network of your brain. If you hold up your palm and turn it into a fist, You can imagine this fist is the cortical structures of your brain, And the default mode network would travel along that middle finger all the way through the mid knuckle and then to the back of the brain. It runs bilaterally down the midline of your parietal, Your prefrontal, And your temporal cortexes of your brain. And when your mind is wandering to the past or the future, This is when the default mode network is most active. So mantra helps suppress this activation to really bring you into the present moment. Interestingly, That default mode network was coined default in 2001 in the inaugural article of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, And researchers called it the default mode because it's the mode that your brain will go into when it's not actively engaged. It's sort of the rest state, The wandering mind. It's wandering to everything but the present moment. So mantra helps sort of collect your mind, Bring it back to the here and now, Like taking a puppy for a walk. And mantras aren't just used in Hindu or Buddhist religions. Many religious traditions have mantras that center the mind. So for example, The Hail Mary prayer in Catholicism, Baruka Ata Adonai in Judaism, In the yogic traditions, Very common mantras are Sat Naam, And even just repeating the word for God, Allah in Islam, Are all like mantras that people have used for generations to center and direct the mind. But you don't have to have religious roots to chant a mantra. You can use English words. It's one of the things I really appreciated about Thich Nhat Hanh is sort of this more secular Buddhist approach where you can use words like Ofosu Jones Cordy shared with us in the episode I did with him, I am enough, Or just this moment can be powerful tools. Mantras also appear to be especially beneficial because of their impact on our breathing. If you've read James Nestor's book on breath, The new science of a lost art, Many of these mantras support what's called resonant breathing. It's slowing your breath down to that ideal count of about five and a half seconds in and five and a half seconds out. In the book, Nestor shares about a 2001 study on subjects participating in Christian prayer circles and found that actually these prayers fell into the same pattern of five to six breaths per minute. And when subjects breathed in the slow way, The blood flow in their brain increased, The functions of their heart, Their blood circulation system, Their nervous system became more synchronized for maximum efficiency. So mantras can be a useful tool to bring our attention back to the present moment and slowing our breathing down. The sound of mantras can also be a useful tool, And that's why I go back to that breathing and I've arrived, Breathing out, I am home, Because that last sound, That home or that humming sound is used in a lot of religious practices as well. And humming in that way, We know activates the vagus nerve. It tones your vagus nerve and it activates your social engagement system, Sort of that soothing system. And we hear that in sounds like Om or the Christian word Psalm, Things that end in that M sound. I like the word home because actually a lot of my struggles early on in life were about feeling not at home in myself, Not at home in my body. I always had that feeling of where is my home and can I find a home within myself? That's why I wanted to be a snail when I grew up. And that's also probably why at 19 years old, When I saw that sign, I have arrived, I am home. I felt so nourished by it. I'm going to be encouraging you to find a mantra today that fits for you, That fits for your nervous system, The words that feel soothing to you and that are simple enough that you can remember them and you can start to practice them. The first mantra that I was actually given by somebody was by Ananda, Who was my yoga teacher at the El Dorado Mountain Yoga Ashram. Ananda worked at Home Depot by day and worked at the ashram by night. She was solid, Strong. You can picture her being able to move a pallet, Right? But then also really supple and sweet and gentle and incredibly wise. And when she saw me, A stressed out PhD student dropping out of graduate school, Going to find some help at an ashram, She gave me the mantra that was perfect for me, Which was Hum Sa. It's a very simple mantra that just means, I am that. Breathing in Hum, Breathing out Sa. I am that. I am all. I am her. I am him. I am them. I am not all that. I am that. And it was beautiful because it was a simple mantra that I could repeat with my breath. Again, Slowing the breath down, Breathing in Hum, Breathing out Sa. And didn't have a whole lot of ego to it, Which some of the other mantras that I've learned over time, They're quite complicated or in Sanskrit, The chants that I chant could have been ones that I could have gotten really ego based about, Especially if I was doing it in a group. So she knew. She saw me. She knew what she was working with here. Give her the simplest mantra of all time and give it to her in a way that she's not going to say it out loud. So it was really an internal practice. So those are two examples of mantras. Breathing in, I have arrived. Breathing out, I am home. Or Hum on the inhale and Sa on the exhale. And those are my two very first ones and two of my favorite ones. And you're welcome to try those mantras out for yourself. See how they feel for you. I do have a mantra of Hum Sa on my insight timer. If you want to listen to that meditation and see how it lands. But I also recommend that you come up with your own. And this is where I'm going a little bit rogue here because traditionally mantras are passed to you by a spiritual teacher. But maybe if we use a different word for mantra, Something just like a healing phrase, Not necessarily an affirmation, But just more of a phrase that settles you, That helps you feel at home in your body, That soothes you, You could really come up with any phrase that you want to come up with. One of my favorites these days is the simple practice of walking with the mantra, Yes, Yes, Thank you, Thank you. And this sort of aligns with Dan Siegel's work around the yes brain of just saying yes to life. Take a step and say yes. Take another step and say yes. Take a step and say thank you. Take another step and say thank you. We know all the benefits of gratitude, That it helps our immunity, It helps our mood, It helps us be more resilient. But some of us get a little bit stale in our gratitude practice. There was actually some research that Sonia Lubinersky out of UC Riverside that showed that people who practice a gratitude practice every single day, Write down the three things that they are grateful for, Actually didn't have the same effect. It didn't have the same positive impact on them as somebody who practiced it once a week. And in some other research, There was evidence that if you are severely depressed, Sometimes making a gratitude list makes you feel a little bit worse because it's hard to dig up things to be grateful for when your mind is in a really negative place. So this practice of the mantra of taking a step, Yes, Yes, Thank you, Thank you, Can be a really beautiful, Simple mantra practice, Walking meditation practice, Gratitude practice to give you all those beautiful benefits of gratitude in the present moment, In the here and now, In a really embodied space. Other mantras that clients of mine have developed or I've used in my life are the simple mantras like just this moment, Precious moment, Or breathing in I am peace, Breathing out, I offer peace, Or breathing in compassion, Breathing out compassion. You can take a moment for yourself, Maybe later today to just brainstorm some words that settle you, That make you feel at home, That tend to your nervous system, That you like the sound of, That maybe connect to meaningful memories or ways of being soothed by others. And see if you can put a few of them together. Putting them together in that five count breath away can be helpful. And that may be slowing the words down, Or it may be just repeating one word over time. And when you have a few sentences together or a few words that you want to try out, Or maybe you want to try out the ones that I offered today, You can practice your mantra in different ways. So one way to practice a mantra is in a formal practice. I have different malas that I love and have collected from different places over time that have a lot of meaning to me, But you can get any old string of beads. Traditionally, 108 beads is what's used in a mala or some variation of 108. So sometimes it's 54 or 27. With a mala meditation practice, You repeat the mantra out loud or in your mind and move a bead every single time you repeat it. And that keeps track. It sort of is part of a rhythmic practice that's nice to do with your hands. It can be a nice thing to keep a mala bracelet around your wrist, And you can do it when you're in a meeting, Or you can do it when you're on the airplane. But you can also keep something like my son's alphabet letter bracelet that he gave me that has my name and alphabet letters from preschool as something else that you want to just kind of use to run your thumb over while you repeat your mantra. Another way to practice your mantra may be just as I've talked about going for a walk and repeating it as you walk, Or maybe repeating it before bed or first thing in the morning, Or just when you need to settle yourself back home into your body. Breathing in, I have arrived. Breathing out, I am home. Arrived, Home. So to summarize our skill-building episode, Mantras are mind tools. They're tools to help you heal your mind, H-E-E-L and H-E-A-L. They bring your mind back to the present moment. And there's traditional mantras from many different religions that you could choose from if you have a lineage that you're drawn to. But mantras can also be secular. You can choose to be secular. You can choose words that feel healing and centering for you. Repeat your mantra in a way that slows your breath down to that ideal count of five counts, And maybe include some words that have a little bit of that humming sound, That soothing sah sound. And if you do choose a mantra, You can practice it in a more formal way, Maybe five minutes in the morning, Or with a mala, A string of beads. Or you can practice it in an informal way, Just repeating it to yourself when you need it. So I hope this episode on how to build your own mantra is useful to you. And let me know if it is. Let me know what mantras you're trying out. I'm so curious. Thanks so much for listening to this skill-building episode of The Wise Effort Show. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Wise Effort Podcast. Wise Effort is about you taking your energy and putting it in the places that matter most to you. And when you do so, You'll get to savor the good of your life along the way.