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Use Mantras to Focus Your Mind and Change Your Life
Use Mantras to Focus Your Mind and Change Your Life
published on MindBodyGreen
By Rana Waxman
We are all leaders of our own lives and we need all the focus we can muster in order to do the mundane and the miraculous. It can be a full-time job in itself, but discipline and consistency pay off.
Even if you are “not interested in yoga,” you can be interested in the power of sound. You know some sounds resonate as peaceful, some can be abrasive, some energizing.
There are many mantras to choose from, either from your favorite CD, a resource book or you may seek the traditional approach for guidance from your yoga teacher. Focus on one mantra during your practice. Through repetition, the mantra will rest in your heart and repeat itself even when you are not formally in your practice time.
Tips to try this out:
Begin by stating to yourself your intention – your starting point problem, question, or desire.
You may initiate a new journal and either write it or sketch it in a way that is clear to you or fold it up and put it in a special place where it will remain for the duration of your discipline. Perhaps you will create a special healing space such as an altar with your favorite incense, a lovely candle, an inspiring picture or figurine or crystal. This will also be the place where you come to practice your discipline each day, your sanctuary. The painting in this photo is by one of my students, Julia Sheppard.
She painted it for me and it is a most special touchstone on my desk.
Now that you have prepared the foundation for your discipline choose the approach that appeals to you:
Repeat the mantra as often as possible over a 21-day period.
This means using the windows of time during your day to chant your mantra. It might also mean a regular interval in your day where you are conscious of your mantra practice during more formal sessions.
Intention, Attention.
Use the classical 40-day discipline, and set your practice at the same time, upon rising in the morning and before going to bed in the evening.
This is your sacred time to practice without interruption. In the classical sense, a 40-day discipline is one in which you repeat the same mantra every day for those 40 days. As with everything else, the more attention you apply to your intention, the more dramatic the results. This is one reason for the classical twice a day ritual.
Determine for yourself in a spacious and focused way how much time you will devote to your practice. And hey, if for you, the modern yogi(ni) this is when you are on a walk, sitting at your desk, in the car at a red light, and you only get in 5 repetitions, that are always better than 5 negative or worrisome thoughts.
Don’t judge, practice!
If you wish, set aside a special mala or rosary that you will use for this specific practice until you have completed your discipline. Either place it in your sacred space or wear it. Most malas have 108 beads, as the Vedic teachings state there are 108 principal astral channels leading from the heart in the subtle body out to the rest of the subtle body. Saying your mantra 108 times sends energy into each of these channels. Using a mala keeps your energy focused on your meditation.
Once you have started on this silent journey, there will be consequences from your effort. Tensions may ease or arise, obstacles or irritations may come up as you clear through resistance and negative energy patterns, and doorways may open.
You will be faced with the choice always to move through, open up, recreate new internal energy patterns or give into those parts of the self that do not seem to want to change and grow. Knowing that this is a natural part of the voyage, relax into your practice.
Engage your peaceful warrior spirit and if it is within you.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Published December 9, 2012 at 7:51 AM
I heart yoga
“Yoga is the Uniting of Consciousness in the Heart” ~ Nisch
ala Joy Devi
I love this image. It is a nice analogy to see thoughts as passing clouds, and the mind as the big blue sky behind them…maybe not all thoughts are of love or loving things, but let this remind us to stay uplifted, be uplifted, and look to be uplifted! Feel this as you lift your heart, relax your shoulders and allow yourself to focus on a calm breath
yoga and you
Whatever ‘style’ of Yoga you 
practice, keep a sense of humor and always listen to your own body…This great quote will keep you focused: “Standardized or forced practices may not help in the study of yoga, and may in fact cause disturbance. The key to right teaching is in the adaptation of yoga to the individual, not the individual to yoga…the whole spectrum of yoga practice must be carefully adapted to the individual’s situation. Nothing can be forced.” ~ T.K.V. Desikachar , The Heart of Yoga
Inner Space
Today I will give myself the space I need…
“You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather” ~ Pema Chodron
Great visual to accompany your yoga practice today, or simply find your seated posture. Breathe calmly and allow stressful situations to float away like passing clouds on a big blue sky…
Brain Holiday
A balanced Yoga practice allows my mind to rest in stillness.
If you want to learn how, even just a simple seated pose, a few shoulders shrugs and some calm breathing will give you a much needed brain holiday!
Receive and Let Go
This photo is a beautiful embodiment of a quote I came across by Swami Chetanananda: 
“It is surrender that allows a bigger person to emerge and to replace the smaller person you used to be, and this will happen over and over again as you grow. By surrendering to the higher Force within you, you are releasing all tensions and allowing your creative energy to express itself”. We typically add to our already busy lives without subtracting, which just leads to more imbalance. Today try releasing an old belief, acknowledge a habit that is not working for you, give away a piece of clothing that you do not wear. Be open to let go and receive blessings and transformations in this new spacious awareness. Start now with a short inhale and prolonged exhale…Let go let go let go 🙂
Flipping your Perspective
“If you change the way you look at things the things you look at change” – Wayne Dyer Self-explanatory, right?! In terms of Yoga postures, inversions typically help us see things differently. If you practice the headstand you will definitely see whether there is any dirt under the bed! Kidding aside, gift giving season is a really tough one if you focus on what you don’t have and can’t afford. I like the image of flipping a perspective as if it were a pancake. You can do this by taking a few moments to sit still and breathe, walk outside in nature, go to a museum, donate food to a foodbox or a toy to an orphan…whatever you never do and/or enjoy. Give your regular mind a rest, and get in touch with the new perspective that is waiting to be uncovered so that you can literally ‘count your blessings’.
How do you start your day?
Cold weather, yes, we all need a hot drink but this is a great little zinger to zap your immune system with E N E R G Y! try: pink grapefruit, lime and ginger WHOO HOO! Ready for the day now…
Staying Present
My Teacher always reminds me that the present moment is all we ever have; to live in any other time is a loss of energy and attention. As Dr. Northrup says, “When we obsess about someone or something, our life-energy leaks out.” Can you today, right now, just breathe and be?