This quick video is about the power of mantra, how it effects the koshas (our aspects of self), and how it can slow and reverse our samskaras (deeply latent tendencies). Amber and Erika will be beginning a 40 Mantra Meditation Challenge this Friday from 5:45-7:45 followed by a facebook group to track progress, share ideas, and deepen the work.

Hi everyone, Amber here! I am doing a workshop and meditation challenge with Erika that we’re really excited about. It'll be something special and different!

I was getting ready to do my nightly mantra meditation and I had all of these thoughts that I just wanted to share with you about why mantra is so powerful particularly when it comes to rewriting our subconscious scripts, which can really create change in our lives. It can help us build new positive habits that can help us to let go of those things we want to let go of, whether habits or belief systems or stories that we tell ourselves.

In yoga, we have five bodies called koshas, and one of those is the mind body. In the mind body are our thoughts and our feelings as well as the subconscious drives (latent potentials known as samskaras) that really push our thoughts and our feelings. The problem is we get confused and we misidentify with those thoughts and feelings--we think we are those things we think, we are the feelings we feel-- whereas yoga actually teaches us we’re so much more than our thoughts and feelings. Yoga teaches us that we are sat-chit-ananda, which means truth-awareness-bliss. That truth-awareness-bliss is our true and abiding nature and all of our suffering is because we have misidentified with the mind body’s activity.

Mantra provides a really powerful tool for reworking the manomaya kosha (the mind body). One of the ways it does this is by putting speed bumps (opposite thoughts known as pratipaksha bhavana) in front of those subconscious thoughts that go around and around, the thoughts and the feelings that are entrenched and that probably affect us in ways we aren’t even aware of. By putting speed bumps, or opposite thoughts, in front of those deeply ingrained patterns, we slow down their momentum. Everytime we say the mantra, we slow down the samskara a little more and a little more. Overtime, those subconscious patterns lose all of their momentum and their hold on us.

The other cool thing about mantra is that while it slows down the harmful samskaras, it can help us to build helpful samskaras. Every time we say the mantra, we are creating deeper grooves of that positive mantra in our subconscious minds. These positive patterns support us to more fully connect with the identity of sat-chit-ananda and help us to get rid of all the other crap that's has us confused and believing that we are so much less than this.

I hope you’ve found this interesting. If so, you should definitely consider doing the challenge with us! (5 spots left!) We've got the workshop on Friday night and then we have a 40-day Facebook group that Erica and I are so excited about. We’ve prepared a ton of really cool and interesting material to keep you motivated and to provide continuing education as the 40 days go on. I hope to see you there. Also, just a little heads up to keep an eye out because we're planning to do two more 40 day challenges (not mantra) these this year!