“Chanting is a spiritual discipline believed to improve listening skills, heightened energy and more sensitivity toward others. The practice gained popularity when an album of Gregorian chants by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Damingo in Spain became a best seller. Chants can express devotion, gratitude, peace, compassion and call in light into someone’s life. Here are chants that can help improve your life….”
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“At the end of the day, it comes down to gratitude, compassion, and love – the core emotional vessels into connection and well-being. In Buddhism, there are two sets of four ‘mantras’ that I would like to share. They further exhibit this point. The first is called “The Four Immeasurables.” These are four qualities with boundlessly positive affects – qualities that we always have access to and can habituate our minds to remember and practice. They go as follows:…”
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“Back before there were psychiatrists and therapists, way before the introduction of Prozac and Xanax, people were using mantras to calm their nervous systems and sooth symptoms of depression and malaise. In fact, the earliest mantras were used by Hindus more than 3,000 years ago. Employed by Buddhists, Christians, Taoists, and persons of most faith traditions, mantras defined in the strict sense consist of hymns, chants, syllables, or groups of words that are considered sacred, having psychological and spiritual powers. I use the term loosely to refer to a phrase repeated over and over, or whenever a painful emotion or thought surfaces. During periods of acute depression and anxiety, I have uttered these words as many as 500 times a day. They are especially useful when caught in tormenting ruminations….”
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