Can Chanting OM Reduce Stress and Anxiety?

You may perhaps have heard the word “OM” through a yoga class. It is at times chanted 3
situations at the commencing or finish of a yoga or meditation exercise.

Nevertheless it may perhaps appear to be a tiny word, OM is stated to have roots that trace back again to the origin of the environment and can be uncovered in Hindu scriptures that date back again around 5,000 several years in the past. Molded around time as a fundamental symbol for yoga, experiments demonstrate that chanting OM can give wonderful health and fitness gains and minimize strain and stress and anxiety.

What is OM?

With its roots in Hinduism, OM is an historical mantra that sages feel to be the
sound of common development. The literal translation of OM is stated to be “anything and everybody,” signifying that OM represents the full environment and all of its seems.

Pronounced appropriately, OM has 4 syllables and is pronounced AUM. When chanted, OM vibrates at the frequency of 432 Hz — the same vibrational frequency uncovered in all points during mother nature.

The exercise of chanting OM was adapted by quite a few distinctive teams. According to Paramahansa Yogananda, creator of the traditional text Autobiography of a Yogi, “OM or AUM of the Vedas turned the sacred word Hum of the Tibetans, Amin of the Moslems, and Amen of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians.” Around time, OM has also grow to be a symbol for yoga exercise.

The Science of OM

There have been quite a few experiments carried out on the physiological and psychological outcomes of practising meditation making use of the word OM. Ordinarily, it is thought that a person who perceives OM merges with the supreme. Throughout meditation, the meditators usually concentrate on a photo of OM and then mentally chant OM.

“Scientifically, OM is a monosyllable, which allows to gradual down respiration and lengthen exhale when chanting it,” suggests Shirley Telles, a neurophysiologist and director of Patanjali Exploration Foundation in Haridwar, India. Telles helped perform a research printed in 1998 that measured autonomic modifications whilst mentally repeating two syllables — a person meaningful and the other neutral. The research chose OM as its meaningful symbol and results showed that thanks to the word’s significance, participants professional an maximize in aim, slower and rhythmic respiratory, as very well as great tuning of the considering cortex.

According to another scientific research on OM printed in the International Journal of Yoga, “the OM chant has stated to carry on a condition of devoid exertion and focusing, and is characterised by blissful awareness.” The research also suggests that there is a mix of mental alertness with physiological relaxation through the exercise of OM meditation. 

Anxiety and Anxiousness

So how accurately does OM make us come to feel serene? In limited, scientific experiments have shown
that when you chant OM, an alpha wave is developed inside the brain. This wave
provides a condition of serene. Simply because OM is recognized as the primary sound of the universe, chanting it symbolically and physically tunes us into that sound and acknowledges our connection to anything in the environment and the universe. The rhythmic pronunciation and
vibrations have a calming outcome on the entire body and the anxious method. This, in
convert, lowers the blood strain and boosts coronary heart health and fitness.

In addition to cutting down physiological indicators of strain, Telles suggests that chanting OM can also be a therapeutic action that quite a few men and women pick to have interaction in. An OM paper, printed in 2008 in the International Journal of Laptop Science and Community Safety, explored how steadiness of thoughts can be achieved by chanting OM. The research depicted a regular human being chanting OM and as opposed it to the same human being chanting OM after some days of exercise. The research concluded that however “the regular men and women will not be acquiring steadiness at first in their thoughts,” repeated exercise of chanting OM can make it possible for “the thoughts of the stressed men and women to arrive at steadiness in a several days or weeks.”

Comparable results were being uncovered in a analysis posting exploring the “Beneficial outcomes of OM chanting on depression, stress and anxiety, strain and cognition in aged women with hypertension.” The results of the research showed 6 months of OM chanting experienced significantly enhanced systolic and diastolic strain, pulse price, depression, stress and anxiety and strain.

So, whilst a one chanting session of OM may perhaps not carry you lessened strain and stress and anxiety, repeated exercise carried out in the right fashion appears to be to carry wonderful gains.