A Witnessing Approach (Part 2)

Chanting, Mantras, and even affirmation work can be beautiful tools for healing and personal growth. And they can also cause a lot of backlash and even harm within your system.

Let me share a bit more about the potential harm. Have you ever had someone tell you a story over and over again that you know isn’t true? Your own system screams that isn’t what happened, yet little by little it begins to doubt itself. Or if you don’t believe it you just give up trying to fight the story and say fine. That is what can happen with mantras and affirmations if we are not seeking to dialog with them and partner with them through the Sacred Witness.   

In part one of this blog I introduced two key approaches that I teach clients when they are beginning to work with mantras and any other thought “reorganization” technique tool. First being a willingness to just not recite the mantra or affirmation over and over and then move on with the rest of the day. Instead to welcome and create spaces of silence and pause while working with the mantra. I suggested that you work in rounds of three with mantras:

• The First Round of chanting the mantra wakes up the system and shares with your body, mind, heart, and soul the “topic” of what you want to explore and shift.
• The Second Round of chanting gives your system an opportunity to respond to the questions and invitations that the mantra is bringing up.
• The Third Round of chanting gives your system an opportunity to see what else is there and possibly to help support it in releasing the old and welcoming the new ideas and thoughts that come with that mantra.

In between each round I invite people to pause and allow the silence to help shift your focus from the mantra to the dialog of what is happening in and around your body as a response. To be willing to actively engage in sacred dialog and questions with your own system.

Here are the final two key components of working with mantras so that our system welcomes their support instead of fighting it or just going neutral with them.

Willingness to engage the mantra. 

The power of the mantra is that it is designed to dialog with all aspects of you, your body, mind, heart, and soul. When you chant, sing, or say the mantra out loud you are physically opening a channel of frequency to dialog with that “thought” throughout your whole system. In return, different parts of your system will answer you by sharing what their thoughts, ideas, concerns, and/or confusions are with the intent of what the mantra is asking you to explore. 

Therefore to gain the most healing from mantra, allow yourself to have a two-way conversation where you listen and engage in an active dialog or contemplation with what the mantra is activating in our system. Otherwise, you run the risk of being “tone deaf” or devaluing the responses that are coming from your body to share. If we don’t interact with the mantra through compassionate contemplation, we run the risk of having protective backlash within us because we are not listening to and honoring why the system created itself that way in the first place. Only saying and not dialoguing with a mantra also leaves some of the most vulnerable parts of you feeling as if you don’t care, want their input, and that what they are holding is wrong and not worthy of your attention and care. Not a great start to healing, so I don’t recommend working with a mantra if you are not willing or able to hold a healing presence for yourself and the parts of you that will be activated through the mantra. You might find the information and practices I share in past blogs helpful: “What Creates a Healing Presence?” and “Healing Power of a Sacred Witness”.

Rinse and Repeat. 

The final key takeaway with mantras and any other practice is that they are designed to trickle through the different “programs” within us and help us see which ones still serve, which ones are no longer helpful, and what new ones want to be developed. Therefore repeat use of a mantra is suggested.  I invite clients to work with a mantra for at least a week if not a month so that it can really bring forward a deep re-attunement from separation to wholeness, love, compassion and ultimately freedom to be in attunement with the mantra’s message and invitation. 

Let’s Practice! 

I recently recorded an episode of Soulful Practices Podcast episode 31, A Mantra for Fully Living. In it I share one of my favorite mantras that I use each morning as a self-Reiki practice.  

What do I want to offer my life today?
What do I want to offer myself today?
What do I want to offer others today?
What does the universe want to offer me through my life today?

• Listen on Spotify
• Watch on YouTube

Offering you light and love as you explore the world of mantras, sound healing, and joy!

Michelle

PS: If you would like an on-demand program where I work with the power of mantras, check out my course - A Journey through the Enneagram. A nine-part series on how to help support and free yourself from the nine most common ways we become lost in separation and protective programs.