Most of us have either tried meditation, or at the very least heard of it. Meditation is the process of relaxing your body and allowing your mind to focus, either for the reasons of personal mental health, spiritual upliftment, or fulfilment. Meditation comes with many benefits. It relaxes your body, it refreshes your mind by allowing you to clear away all non-essential thoughts and worries, and it helps uplift your spirit.

This normal type of meditation is done in complete silence. Using the stillness around you allows you to focus on your inner thoughts and feelings without the distraction of any additional sound or ‘white noise’, While this is a very common form of meditation, there is a form of meditation that occurs more often even though most people are not fully aware of it. This second form of meditation is known as mantra meditation.

It occurs when you repeat a sound, word, phrase, or ‘mantra’ repeatedly whilst silently meditating. Mantra meditation is used to develop positive mental patterns by using the repeated mantra to strengthen your understanding and belief of it in your mind, body, and soul. The chosen mantra is often used to condition yourself to the belief in the word or phrase that you are repeating.

Mantra meditation benefits you by adjusting your outlook and the way in which you view and deal with circumstances and situations around you. It reconditions your reactions to see the positive in even negative situations and allows you to expect and experience the best out of life. While this may sound too good to be true, countless people worldwide boast the positive effects of even a half hour of mantra meditation per day.

Types of Mantras

You may be overwhelmed and confused when trying to pick a mantra to use during your time of meditation. You could wonder if whether the phrase that you have selected is able to be used in mantra meditation or whether it is the correct message that you are trying to condition your mind to understand. To help with this, below are 10 examples of popular new and old mantras to be used in meditation.

‘Om’ – This is the most common of all mantra meditations and is known by almost everyone who knows anything about meditation. Meaning ‘It is’ or ‘To become’, this mantra is used to train your mind to accept.

‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ – This popular saying by Gandhi has become a popular mantra to teach oneself to look inward to make a difference in your surroundings.

‘I am that I am’ – Taken from the Bible when the Lord answers Moses, this saying is used to state that you are what you are and the decision to change is with you.

‘I change my thoughts, I change my world’ – This saying by Norman Vincent Peale aids you in changing your inner and outer relationship with yourself and the world.

‘Namo Amita Bha’ – This translates to homage to the Buddah of boundless light and is to bring light and energy into ones life.

‘Maranatha’ – This means ‘come Lord’ and comes from the Christian religion where one is seeking to come closer to the Lord.

‘Om Shanti Shanti Shanti’ – This is the starting of Om and is generally followed by peace of the mind, the body, and of speech.

‘Elohim’ – Hebrew for when one needs guidance. This is used to encourage your mind to select a path to continue on.

‘Every day in every way I’m getting better and better’ – Coined by Laura Silva, this is to help you know that you are making improvement in your life little by little.

‘El Shaddai’ – Meaning ‘God Almighty’, this is also used to draw a closer spiritual relationship with the Lord.