Doing the Practice vs. Being
the Peace About Author
Anandra is a pioneer in the global yoga
community, re-introducing the
ancient practice of sound as a
fundamental practice. She created the
world’s first registered yoga teacher
training based entirely on the
transformational power of sound
(including Sanskrit, mantra, Indian
classical vocal meditation, and non-
violent communication for everyday
life). American by birth, Indian by
soul, and global citizen by expression,
she helps people transform their
limiting belief systems and cultivate
their most fulfilling contribution to
the world.
All too often, we even overlay our
chronic stress even on the activity of our
spiritual sādhanās! In mantra chanting,
this sympathetic nervous system reaction
might express itself as a competitive
emphasis on the number of repetitions
chanted (fight), or on frantic speed
(flight), or in the feeling that we “should”
do it so we don’t feel guilty or we fear
what might happen if we didn’t (freeze). She divides her time between India,
Japan, and on Kaua’i island, Hawai’i,
and teaches mantra workshops and
intensives worldwide. For more than
20 years, she’s been on “the path” and
has been teaching and seeing private
clients globally since 1999. Currently
she’s mentoring change agents
through her Leadership Resonance
Program.
Chanting Self-
Awareness
Fight/Flight/
Freeze Checklist:
Jaw: Relax your jaw
(or is it clenched, bracing for the fight?)
Hands: Open your hands loosely
(are they clenched, bracing for the
fight? Or hidden, trying to hide and
freeze?)
Posture: Relax back
(or is your body leaning forward, ready
for flight?)
Go through this checklist periodically
while you’re chanting, and notice the
pattern you tend to exhibit the most.
Without awareness, change is
impossible! At first, simply observe
(without adding unnecessary
judgment).
Notice if your pattern tends towards
fight, flight, or freeze when you’re
chanting; that same tendency will
probably reflect in many other areas of
your life. Gaining self-awareness (and
eventually mastery) with your chanting
practice can set new patterns into
motion for multiple dimensions of your
life simultaneously.
36 www.yogicherald.com March 2019
As an invitation to the regenerative
parasympathetic state, I suggest we
shift to prioritizing the sweet, spacious
silence after the sound… the echo that
draws us into a natural meditative state.
Let’s give ourselves permission to rest,
digest, and repair on many levels in that
peaceful state of being!