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The power of 'om': How chanting can help your stress and sleep

Author: Nicole Azzopardi
Publication: Smh.com.au
Date: August 10, 2020
URL:   https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/the-power-of-om-how-chanting-can-help-your-stress-and-sleep-20200806-p55jae.html

Welcome to Live Well, a regular series exploring questions on personal health, fitness and nutrition. As we navigate our new lives at home, Live Well seeks to offer practical tips and expert advice for a smarter, more empowered life.

It’s 9.30pm and our eldest daughter has come downstairs to see us for the third time since bedtime.

The wine and snacks are out and there’s something I really want to see on TV – and like most parents, the need to clock off and have some "me time" before bed is feeling stronger than ever.

"But I just can’t get to sleep," says our little girl, who was never the kind of kid to whom sleep comes easily.

"Have you tried doing some mantra? I ask, knowing the answer already.

"I have but it doesn’t always work,” she pleads, desperate for me to lie down with her.

"Darling, it doesn’t work if you just say it a few times. You need to do it for a little longer for it to have an effect."

Within a few minutes of lying side by side in my bed chanting the word "om", my daughter begins to yawn, repeating the mantra out loud becomes more of an effort for her and by the five-minute mark she’s telling me she’s ready to go back to her own bed.

By 9.45pm, I’m back to my alone time and can’t help but marvel at this very simple technique that consistently makes an enormous difference to our lives.

Academic researcher in psychology at Macquarie University Gemma Perry is not in the least surprised by my experience when I share it with her.

In fact, she is so fascinated by the positive effect of mantra she experienced within her own life, that she’s now two years into her PhD on the subject.

"In 2017, we created an experiment where we had 16 participants chant the Indian Sanskrit word 'om' silently for 12 minutes and 18 more participants chant the same word internally for the same amount of time," Perry explains.

"We chose 'om' because it is one of the most frequently chanted sounds worldwide and is commonly used in Buddhism, Hinduism and yogic traditions.

"We expected that stress levels would decrease more in the vocal chanting group but we were surprised to find that stress decreased similarly in both groups."

Saliva tests were taken to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol before chanting and again afterwards. They revealed an up to 14 per cent drop.

Feeling calmer and supporting sleep are just some of the possibilities that Perry's research considers.

"Scientific studies have found that chanting can decrease stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as increase positive mood, feelings of relaxation and focused attention," Perry says.

“It’s possible that, regardless of the tradition or belief system involved in the chanting practice, chanting may have a physiological and psychological effect, no matter what you are chanting.”

Despite dating back to 1500BC India, the practice of mantra is a whole new frontier for Westerners searching for a state of calm in an increasingly uncertain world.

“I think two of the biggest problems we have right now are stress and isolation,” Perry says.

“Chanting seems to have an effect on both of these things. It’s a practice that can enhance connection within the family if the practices are done together.”

As we watch the global COVID-19 death toll rise and nerves begin to fray after weeks and months in lockdown, I do my best to keep a sense of calm in our house by using the technique of mantra I learntmore than 15 years ago.

It helps me stay focused rather than allow my mind to spiral into hypotheticals.

My daily discipline of repeating these ancient sounds gets me to check in with myself, often with the question: "What's actually happening to me? That may be true for them, but what's my experience at this moment?"

Generally, whatever the answer is, I manage to fall asleep more easily and wake up ready to go again.

Sometimes my kids join me when they hear me begin my daily chanting practice, sometimes they don’t. But I’m comforted to know they have a technique in their emotional tool kit they can pull out any time they need to.

 

 
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