If you’ve ever visited a yoga class or sound healing, you may have heard low chants booming through the speakers or enthusiastic foreign languages whispering through Savasana, the final yoga pose in a yoga class. Mantra is most commonly found in yoga, Ayurveda, and other healing arts, but has been found to have a scientific basis for their use.

What is Mantra?

Mantra (or a mantra) is typically used to describe a single word or sound (usually “Om”) or a collection of words that is repeated on a daily basis. The word “mantra” is Sanskrit for “sound tool,” suggesting that mantra is not intended to merely act as a pleasant sound or a means of focus but is a tool to accomplish something.

Mantra varies widely in its usage and verbiage. Many Sanskrit mantras are specific prayers or offers of thanksgiving, but you do not have to use foreign-language mantras for them to be of use. Instead, a mantra offers a way to focus and keep something abreast in your mind.

Mantra for Diabetes

Some have found that adopting a daily mantra helps lower stress levels. Others have found that their pineal gland is stimulated through the use of mantra. Still, others find mantra a simple method to achieve focused attention and concentration. In alternative medicine, mantra has long been used as a wellness practice, used alongside meditation and physical postures.

Mantra has not been proven to have a measurable effect on diabetes symptoms such as high blood sugar and weight but has shown a measurable effect on hypertension. Patients who practiced a dedicated mantra meditation—typically described as a daily practice, with the mantra repeated 108 times—showed a significant lowering in their risk of hypertension.

Because high blood pressure and heart disease are both common in diabetes, keeping hypertension at bay is essential in propagating good health.

Choosing a Mantra

Mantra can be difficult to decide upon, particularly because some mantra has a religious or spiritual undertone to it that can make some people uncomfortable. Finding a mantra, however, does not require adherence to a specific moral or religious code, nor does it require chanting something in a foreign language. Instead, you can choose a mantra tailor-made for you.

Mantra can be as simple as a single word, such as “health,” or it can be as involved as a phrase, such as “My body is my home.” Choose a word or phrase that is meaningful to you and your health and easy to remember. Use it daily and measure your success in adding another puzzle piece to keeping high blood pressure at arm’s length.