Day 17: Om Shanti

So here we are for meditation number 17. We are switching up the mantra today. So you've had just plain Om, you've had Soham, you've had Hamsa. And as I've said, each mantra has its own energy quality. And when you're chanting a mantra, you're imprinting that energy quality mind, body, all through the layers.

So today's mantra, today and tomorrow, Om Shanti Om, Om Shanti Om. So Shanti means peace. So you'll have a new experience, I think, chanting this mantra, a new vibrational experience. So let's begin. If you're using your mala, have it handy, choose your seat and close your eyes. Begin the process of adjusting your posture, anything you need to change in your lower body, sitting bones and pelvic alignment.

Move from the base all the way up through the top of your head. Any other areas of your body, you know you tend to maybe misalign or forget about or collapse into. Make those adjustments. That intentional release of tension. And you probably know you have those spaces where you store, you store stress or you store tension.

Is it your shoulders? Is it the navel center? Maybe it's clenching the teeth. We'll check in and release and soften any of those places of holding. And then as always, give yourself the opportunity to see how you're feeling, mind, emotion and energy. And then eventually, another point of focus, your breathing.

Adjusting quality of natural breathing today. And then now that you've had these few moments of kind of moving from the outer towards the inner, setting up your body and preparing your mind, we're going to shift into the mantra. So grabbing your string of mala beads, starting with your fingers on that first bead, Om Shanti Om. Moving along, Om Shanti Om, Om Shanti Om. And we'll just drop into silence now as we begin that movement around the mala.

Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Over and over again. Remember feeling tone is important. My presence of attention bead to bead, mind with the mantra.

Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. And if you make it all the way around, or when you make it all the way around, remember just keep going, one bead at a time, hearing that inner sound, presence of mind.

Even with this tool, mantra and mala, and still hit that autopilot mode, you're just kind of going, going, going, and maybe full attention is not quite there. Catch yourself when that happens, slow it down, more pause, more presence with each repetition. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. And I want you to pay attention as you're going, what is the quality that you're experiencing now with this new mantra, Om Shanti Om?

Can you actually feel a difference in the quality of this mantra? Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om. So keep continuing. Also remember your body, subtle adjustments as needed so you're not sinking, not collapsing, still lifting tall, relaxed. Begin with those points of tension or gripping and continue, Om Shanti Om. So you're really increasingly present how you're sitting and that inner sound, drawing the mind more and more and more to the here and now, out of its usual kind of unchecked thought patterning.

Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Just about four more minutes. You're tracking along the sound. Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Om Shanti Om. Last moment, just staying with the mantra, Om Shanti Om.

Om Shanti Om. And now releasing the practice of the mantra, let's pause and as we always do, have that moment to feel the benefits or the results of this particular meditation and especially in contrast to the other mantras we've used, noticing mind, noticing emotional content and noticing energy and even that deepest place, that spiritual connection and then bring your palms together at your heart, Namaste, thank you for meditating with me and please let me know what your experience was of this new mantra. Let me know if it was palpably different than the other mantras, thank you.