First things first, what is a mantra?
In the Western tradition, a mantra is defined as a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation or a statement or slogan repeated frequently. Russill Paul in his book The Yoga of Sound: Tapping the Hidden Power of Music and Chant traditionally defines mantras as “sonic formulae that take us beyond, or through, the discursive faculties of the mind and connect our awareness directly and immediately to deep states of energy and consciousness.”
Now that that’s completely clear…
I focused on simple mantras which resonated for me on that specific day. Each day was different. Some days I wanted focus, and others I wanted to cultivate something specific. For example “do infinite good” would be a great mantra if you wanted to cultivate infinite good. I enjoyed mantra meditation as it is similar to breath focused meditation. The mantra offers a grounding point, or something to come back to when my focus wanders.
I did find however, that if I chose a mantra that was too long, I got caught up on remembering the string of words and remembering them properly would throw me off. I was also feeling slightly more scattered this week, which I’m sure contributed to my monkey brain.
Mantra meditation has also been shown to have health benefits, specifically memory benefits. In a 2012 study in the journal of alternative and complementary medicine participants experiencing memory loss completed 12 minutes of mantra meditation a day for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks participants displayed positive changes in mood, anxiety, and other neuropsychologic parameters.
However in a much larger 2018 review published in European Journal of Integrative Medicine, mantra meditation was shown to only have a minimal to moderate positive effect on practitioners. This was attributed to poor study quality in many cases.
I personally enjoy this form of meditation and feel like a little time to yourself, spent mindfully can only bring benefits. However, it up to you to decide.
