Can Calming Mantras Ease Depression?
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If you’ve ever attended a yoga or meditation class, you may have heard the instructor mention a mantra. Mantra is a Sanskrit word meaning “a tool for the mind” or “an instrument of thought.”
Mantras — which have roots in Hinduism and Buddhism — have historically been sacred or calming sounds that can aid meditation and similar practices, according to research published in the International Journal of Yoga. Some claim that the term has been co-opted to include self-affirming statements that help people cope with life’s difficulties, according to Intermountain Health, a nonprofit healthcare system serving communities in the Intermountain West, including Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Kansas.
Mantras can have a number of health benefits, including mental health benefits. In fact, research shows that using mantras may help relieve symptoms and improve quality of life among people with certain mental health conditions like depression.
What Are Mantras?
A mantra is a sound, word, or phrase, that is repeated — either silently or out loud — as a form of meditation or self-soothing, says Avigail Lev, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist and certified mediator who specializes in evidence-based practices related to depression, anxiety, and trauma, and owner of the Bay Area CBT Center in California.
Although some mantras can be sounds, others are a chosen word or phrase with a concrete meaning, Dr. Lev explains. Mantras can be thought, chanted, or sung repeatedly to aid in meditation and help calm the mind, she adds.
Mantras have their origins in Hinduism and Buddhism, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. In these cultures, mantras are considered sacred sounds with important spiritual significance that can help a participant reach a trancelike state and a higher level of spiritual awareness.
Mantras originate from the primordial sound “om,” which is often described as the sound of creation, according to the aforementioned research published in the International Journal of Yoga.
In many countries, including the United States, mantras are commonly used during meditation, a practice that involves focusing your mind or deepening your awareness for a period of time.
Repeating a mantra while meditating, either silently or aloud, can help you focus your attention on the present moment to keep your mind from wandering, says Victoria Latifses, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist based in Austin, Texas.
According to Henry Ford Health, another term that overlaps with some modern-day uses of mantras is affirmations, which are short, positive phrases you can think or repeat to change how you think and feel about yourself. And research suggests that affirmations can help ease negative emotions and broaden your overall perspective.
Psychotherapies (aka “talk therapies”) that incorporate meditation have been shown to help relieve depressive symptoms, according to a systematic review of 18 randomized controlled trials.
How Can Mantras Help With Depression?
Research shows that using mantras (along with other standard treatments — not necessarily in place of them) can reduce depressive symptoms, which may include persistent sadness, a low mood, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, or a loss of interest or pleasure in activities you once loved, among others.
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of mantra-based meditation techniques for mental health symptoms, researchers found that using these techniques helped to reduce depressive symptoms. Mantra-based meditation was also associated with improved quality of life.
But in the research overall, it’s important to note that these effects were mostly seen in individuals who also go to psychotherapy or take antidepressant medication while using mantras, says Lev. For example, in one randomized controlled trial published in Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, researchers found that mantra-based meditation was an effective add-on treatment compared with progressive muscle relaxation for people with major depression in a psychiatric hospital.
When it comes to mental health care in the United States, the use of mantras is especially prevalent in two types of psychotherapy commonly used for depression, says Lev: compassion-focused therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).
Compassion-focused therapy is a somewhat new form of psychotherapy that can help people with mental health issues related to feelings of self-criticism and shame (like depression), according to research. Compassion-focused meditation and loving kindness meditation, which can involve using mantras to show kindness and compassion to yourself and others, are commonly used in compassion-focused therapy, per the same research.
“Specific mantras used in compassion-focused therapy can help with many different symptoms, including increasing positive emotions, life satisfaction, mindfulness, social connection, and reducing rumination,” says Lev.
MBCT combines mindfulness meditation (a form of meditation involving being fully present with your awareness and decreasing your focus on your surroundings) with cognitive behavioral therapy (a commonly used therapy for depression that involves working to change unhelpful thoughts and behavioral patterns to more constructive ones), per Brown University.
For some people, focusing on a mantra can be a key component of their mindfulness meditation practice.
How to Use Mantras — Plus, 7 Mantras to Try
First, choose a mantra that resonates with you. You can use the basic om sound — or Lev often suggests for her patients to come up with a phrase that they would have liked to hear from a parent or caregiver to help them feel a sense of comfort and safety. Then, turn that positive affirmation into a mantra that you can repeat to anchor yourself to the present moment and inspire compassion.
Lev notes that the mantra someone chooses must be believable to them in order to be effective — this is important especially for beginners, as a believable phrase is more likely to inspire self-compassion than a phrase they don’t yet buy into. (See examples 1 and 2 from Lev below.)
Or, you can expand these mantras to another popular set of phrases, often used in mindfulness meditation practices globally, suggests Dr. Latifses (see example 3 below).
Latifses says she likes to use “I am” mantra statements with her patients, too. (See examples 4 through 7 below that Latifses shared.)
Here are seven examples of mantras:
- “In this moment, I am safe.”
- “May I accept myself as I am.”
- “May we all be safe, may we all accept ourselves as we are, may we all be healthy.”
- “I am peaceful.”
- “I am calm.”
- “I am grounded.”
- “I am present.”
Once you’ve chosen your mantra, find a quiet place to sit, says Latifses. Breathe slowly through your nose as you begin to chant your mantra out loud or silently. Repeat it steadily, hearing the natural rhythm of the phrase and allowing it to ground you, she says.
The aforementioned Journal of Affective Disorders Reports trial showed that participants experienced an improved mood when they implemented a mantra-based meditation practice for 30 total minutes, two days per week for six months.
However, Lev notes that even practicing mantras for five minutes a day could be enough for people to see some mental health benefits.
Trying out a mantra meditation on your own (following the directions above) is generally safe for most people, including people with depression or other mental health conditions, as long as you’re doing it in addition to other treatment prescribed by your healthcare provider.
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