I have been chanting more regularly since I started taking kundalini yoga classes on the Big Island. Through my experience taking these types of classes and other angels in my life, I have realized that certain types of chanting and pranayama practices, like breath of fire, are now more effective in shaking my body and nervous system back into a more easeful state when feeling sticky or frozen in my body. A more easeful state would sometimes come out of me as I gently cried out the tension and release tension from the vibrations coming from the chanting and pranayama practices. At times, the process also included making more sense of past pictures with clearer pictures, and bodily sensations, which somehow helped soothed, calmed, and nurtured my mind more than any verbal story could do.
When chanting, I am able to notice the sensations that are different from the vibrations coming from my chants; allowing me to catch and release or process these sensations not from my chants more easily - without pushing, blocking, or being delusional by them. Some of these sensations could be associated with hypervigilance, overthinking (worries), my default defense mechanisms, fear trapped in my body - sensations associated with feelings of discomfort, disconnection, and not wanting to be in the present moment.
In class, I am able to chant and practice pranayama for a full hour. As a personal practice, I mix sets of breath of fire followed by chanting seed mantras associated with different chakra (energy centers) for a couple of minutes at a time throughout the day when I get a chance.
Lately, I have been chanting the seed mantra, “Lam,” associated with the root chakra. I noticed that connecting to the vibrations associated with this seed mantra helps ground me and connect me to my heart and true nature. I practice chanting this seed mantra about 108 times (sometimes all the way through or breaking the chants up into 3-4 sets). Recently, I have been mixing these chants throughout my weight training practices or doing them while cooking. I also normally practice breath of fire before chanting; doing about 30-50 reps of breath of fire for about 2-3 sets at a time, in a sitting or supine position.
These tools from yoga have been helping me so much, especially with adapting to living with Pele (the fire and volcanic Hawaiian goddess) with the raw and chaotic culture on the Big Island, along with working through the grief from the shifts in 2020. Writing and talking wasn’t enough for me to process so much change in life. Even though I am grateful for living on such a beautiful island and don’t regret moving here, being physically far from many of my close friends and longtime students was hard for me. Practicing grounding tools to work with impermanence and fear has been very helpful in keeping me focus on my karma (trying to work on not focusing on other peoples karma…), higher purpose, and deep intentions.
May these practices or whatever ones you do support you to focus on your karma, higher purpose, and deep intentions.
List of Bija (one-syllable seed sounds) Mantras to Chant for Each Chakra
Svadisthana. Sacral chakra. Chant “Vam”. Element: water. Energy: in the flow. Action: I feel.
Manipura. Solar Plexus chakra. Chant “Ram”. Element: fire. Energy: self-mastery. Action: I do.
You can chant the bija mantra 108 times. You can use the necklace in the box to keep track of each chant (it has 108 beads, plus an extra one to know when you start and end). Sometimes, I just use a timer, by taking the length of my chant (5-10 seconds) and calculating the time accordingly on how long it would take me to chant the mantra 108 times.
References
https://www.evolutionvt.com/chanting-the-chakra/ 6/1/21
https://www.yogajournal.com/video/chakras-101-how-bija-mantras-balance-the-subtle-body/ 6/1/21
