How mantras promote a quiet mind
One of my favorite scenes in the now-controversial movie The Help is when Viola Davis’ character says to the little girl she looks after, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” In just nine words, three powerful truths were affirmed - ones that would undoubtedly remain embedded in the little girls’ psyche. Affirmations, such as those, matter to young humans, and their impact is no less potent for adults.
The use of affirmations or mantras is universal, spanning across cultures and implemented across all sectors of society. Athletes often use them to hone their focus, increase their confidence, or dial-up their intensity. Diana Nyad relied on the mantra “find a way” during her record-breaking 112-mile swim from Florida to Cuba. After 4 unsuccessful attempts spanning over 30 years, she decided to implement this mantra while training for her final attempt. Of course, it wasn’t those 3 words alone that brought her feet to the sandy shore, but they certainly propelled her through the brutal challenges she encountered at sea.
The word mantra comes from the Sanskrit words “manas” (mind) and “tra” (tools), so it translates to “an instrument of thought”. That certainly helps explain why repeating a few select words, whether out loud, whispered, or mentally, can quiet the inner chatter and cultivate deep calmness.
In fact, there’s another reason beyond etymology that explains why mantras work. Not surprisingly, it has to do with the brain.
In one study, participants silently repeated the word “one” while lying in an fMRI scanner. “One” is not exactly bursting with spiritually powerful qualities. But, that was the point - to isolate the effect of repetitive words on the brain. So, what did the researchers find? As predicted, mentally saying “one” over and over caused a widespread reduction in cortical brain activity across several networks. The most notable network was the Default Mode Network (DMN). This is significant because the DMN is involved with self-referential processing and, if overactive, leads to rumination and depression. Typically, when a person engages in any cognitive task, DMN activity reduces, but other task-positive networks become more active. By repeating mantras, though, the brain decreases its activity globally, with no corresponding increase anywhere. This is the neural correlate of mantras or affirmations quieting the mind.
While studies suggest that the word or words you repeat do not matter, ancient traditions teach otherwise. Based on my own experience, I don’t think repeating “sky, sky, sky” or “chair, chair, chair” would have had the same effect during my half Ironman that “I can. I will. End of Story” had. Every sound has a unique vibrational fingerprint, so it’s not outlandish to believe that eventually, science will catch up and find more subtle neural differences depending on the affirmation repeated.
As you increase awareness of your thoughts, play around with implementing a mantra to quiet the mental swirl. It’s pretty powerful. As yoga teacher Sally Kempton said,
“You enliven a mantra through regular practice over a period of time—months or even years. It’s a bit like rubbing a flint against a stone to strike fire. The friction of the syllables inside your consciousness, the focus of bringing yourself back to the mantra again and again, and especially the attention you give to the felt sense of the mantra’s resonance inside your awareness will eventually open the energy in the mantra, and it will stop being just words and become a living energy that you’ll feel shifting your inner state.”
I’m curious, have you used mantras either in meditation or in your daily life? Tell me in the comments.