The Power of Chanting Mantras for Children
By Nina Patel
“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss.” --English painter John Berger
The great writer Leo Tolstoy penned the literary masterpiece War and Peace and was also a supreme advocate of early childhood development. He believed that our entire lives were really only one small step in a larger journey, but that our early childhood years held the potential for tremendous change. In fact, many advocates of the need for early childhood development have professed the profound importance of a child's early and most impressionable years. It was Mahatma Gandhi who once said, "If we wish to create a lasting peace we must begin with the children.”
Psychologists are only now coming to recognize what visionaries have known for years. A child's entire course of life may be set into motion in the first few years and everything we experience from that time on may be part of a gradual trend in our neurological programming.
We are all aware of the impact that affirmations have on the subconscious mind. Any word or phrase repeating in one’s mind has the power to influence thoughts, emotions and attitudes. Affirmations can replace negative feelings with positive ones, regulate our immune functions, the quality of our emotions and the effectiveness of our actions. When repetition of a word or phrase is combined with the breath, it becomes a powerful tool for transformation at the cellular level. At that level, words become sound vibrations. That sound vibration is called a mantra.
Mantras exist in all languages and religions. For example, Ave Marie is a common mantra chanted by Christians around the world. A popular Tibetan mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum is chanted for world peace and OM, is considered to be the first primordial sound of the universe.
How can chanting help children?
Repeating a mantra or chanting can help relax an anxious child by first regulating his breath. When one chants, the breath becomes deep, even and regular. This allows higher levels of oxygen to flood the body and as a result, the body begins to relax. Eventually, the child’s emotional level becomes calmer and more centered, and the physical body follows. “Chanting mantras can be very calming and reassuring for children in this fast-paced, ever-changing world we live in today,” says Anandita Oberoi, Licensed Professional Counselor. "I have used mantras on my child clients and found that chanting simple mantras can help build a child’s self-confidence, lower their anxiety and ease them during difficult times such as a loss of a loved one,” she adds. Chanting can also help comfort a child who is sad, afraid or angry, because he can learn to connect more deeply with his inner self.
When can a child begin chanting?
According to psychologists, a child's toolbox of coping mechanisms, such as how he handles stress and deals with relationships, as well as his temperament and outlook on life, is set by the age of six. The most powerful time to begin chanting for a child is right now. Parents can instill a routine of chanting mantras together with their child every day with the help of mantra CD’s that are widely available on Amazon and Cdbaby.com. The catchy music on these CD’s can make learning mantras easy and entertaining for children, allowing them to navigate their daily challenges with more ease. CD’s are also a practical solution for busy parents since they can be played in the car during the morning commute and at bedtime, helping a child feel more at peace with themselves and the world around them.
Why Sanskrit?
Sanskrit is not a religion. It is a language that has been dated back to 3,500 B.C. that is said to be the origin of all the Indo-European languages we speak today. Sanskrit is a purely phonetic language meaning that they are no names of the alphabet JUST SOUNDS. These ancient sounds create energy vibrations that can replace negative energy with positive ones. When chanting or listening to a Sanskrit mantras, the chanter benefits from the powerful energy accumulated by thousands of thousands of people who have chanted that mantra over millennia.
The power of children's mantras is profound, both in its ability to be chanted as the spiritual masters have done for centuries and in its ability to affect our children during their most formative years. With everything we know today about the power of the mind and the profound impressions that can be made in our early years, it is obvious that instilling this practice is invaluable. There is no time like the present to make the profound change that spiritual masters have known for centuries.
The power of chanting mantras is the greatest gift a child can receive today for their future.
Nina Patel, who also goes by the artist name Mantra Mom, is the producer of a cd titled ‘Mantras for my children…and yours; Sanskrit chants to calm active children.” She has been practicing mantras her entire life and is a Reiki Healer. Her inspiration for the cd was her two very active boys- Jaidan, 5 and Kalel, 3. She can be reached at www.mantramom.com.