#57 Heal Your Mind & Body with the Power of Mantra
The intricate dance between the mind and body is potent, yet its significance is often downplayed or overlooked.
Following a breast cancer diagnosis, the mental battleground can rival, if not exceed, the physical one. The journey to healing post-treatment can feel isolating, particularly if your mind becomes an adversary rather than an ally.
Discover a potent, cost-free strategy to emancipate yourself from the shackles of fear and anxiety that shadow survival.
In this episode, delve into the world of mantras. Understand their essence and the scientific evidence highlighting their role in tranquilizing the mind and enhancing well-being.
I'll also share my intimate journey with mantras and how they've become my shield, deflecting stress and preventing needless emotional turmoil.
Studies:
PSTD Can Hit Women With Breast Cancer Years After Diagnosis
Depression in Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review of Cross-Sectional Studies in Iran
Transcendental meditation for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Harvard neuroscientist: Meditation not only reduces stress, here’s how it changes your brain
Websites:
Movie:
Read the full transcript:
0:01
This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical Ayurveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life, and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer.
0:38
Hello, and welcome to episode 57 of the breast cancer recovery coach. I am your host, Laura Lummer. And then super happy that you are tuning in and downloading the show today. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for doing that. Because without you, there would be no breast cancer recovery coach podcast. So if you're a regular listener, and you haven't taken the time to leave an honest review, for the show, I would love it. If you could take a moment today. And do that leave a few stars, your reviews your feedback, your input means so much to the show, and just help to make it that much more easy for any other survivor who might need to hear the information to find it. So today we are talking about healing your mind body with the power of mantra. So I want to share some insights, a little bit of history and story with me first, and we'll get into what is this really all about? What is a mantra? How does it work with the mind? What does it have to do with healing the body? And why should you have a mantra practice in your life. So let me first share with you a recent experience. I was heading up to my sister's house, she lives up in Santa Barbara in California and I love taking the train when I go to her house. Because if you've never ridden on the train and you train, it's just fun. It's relaxing. You can have drinks, you can work on the computer, or you can watch the ocean. This is a surf line. So it goes right up the coast of California and I absolutely love it. I've done this so many times. And many years ago when I worked down in further south in San Diego, California, I would take it for work all the time, go down to San Diego on the train riding on the coastline almost the whole way. And it was just awesome. So I love the train. And unlike airplanes, I've never had a bad experience of a train being late. In fact, they're always so prompt that to be honest, I have missed a train or two. But this time, the train is two and a half hours late. And it's late in the evening. I actually missed something I really wanted to do in the afternoon because of the time my train was leaving. So here I am two and a half hours later, still sitting there in the train station. And we get the announcement that the train is coming. So I love all of my very heavy bags because I always overpack. I lug them over to the train platform. And I'm standing there loaded down with bags and a computer and whatever all of the stuff that I bring along with me. And as I'm standing there, I start to realize that in my mind, I'm repeating a mantra. And when I realized that it kind of brought a smile to my face, because this has been a practice of mine for a very long time. And that's when I noticed that that moment that that practice has become now so ingrained, that my mind almost automatically goes there when I find myself in a frustrating or stressful situation. And it's that practice of repeating that mantra in my mind that keeps me from losing my shit when I'm it's two and a half hours late, standing outside on a hot muggy train platform. And knowing that now I'm going to arrive way later, everybody's going to be in bed. So the whole situation is thrown off. But I'm not even ruffled. It's just okay. And the train is here now. And I'm going to get on the train and I've been relaxing, lovely ride up to see my sister. So let's back this up a little bit. When I was a kid, I can remember laying in bed, whether it was that I couldn't fall asleep or that something woke me up in the middle of the night, because I heard a noise or I got up to go to the bathroom. And I thought I saw a shadow or I heard a monster or whatever scares a little kid in the middle of the night. And I would get into my bed if I wasn't already in it. And I'd slide down as far as I could under my covers. And I'd start repeating Hail Marys as fast as I could, fast as I could. Because my mom always told me that whenever I was scared, I should just say my prayers. So that's what I would do. And you know what? It always worked. One minute I'd be terrified and mumbling Hail Marys as fast as I could. And the next thing I knew It was morning, and I was still alive. Thank God, no monsters. So as I got a little bit older, the 70s rolled around. And there's this huge movement of Transcendental Meditation. Now as straight laced as my deputy sheriff father could be and was, there was the side of him that was very attracted to meditation and yoga, which I still find surprising when I think about it. And I wish that our relationship at that time had been the kind that I could have asked him about why he liked it, and what his thoughts were. But at that time, and I was very young, my family was very much a children are seen and not heard type of household on that from that generation. And so as a child, I and all my siblings, we did what we were told. So we went to transcendental meditation classes, with my entire family, all eight of us not like we went as if we had a choice, my dad put us in the car and took us. And I would sit in this classroom, you know, is one of those community recreation community programs, I'm not sure what they're called. And they do him late at night in the school, and I sat there, and it felt so late, I think it probably had to have been late, when I listened to this man talking about thoughts and consciousness. And it meant absolutely nothing to me, I must have been about 11 years old. And he had this big rolling chalkboard and he had draw pictures of bubbles. And these bubbles, were representing thoughts. And I would just be sitting there as quietly as I could, and waiting very impatiently to get the hell out of this weird class that my dad was forcing me to go to. So I can get home and watch TV or anything else other than watching this guy dropped bubbles on the chalkboard. So after several weeks of attending these classes, the night came when my dad sat us down before we were supposed to go to another class and said, this was a very special night. And we were all going to be receiving our mantra from this guy called the maharishi. And we were told to be very, very polite and courteous, and that this was a special ceremony and that we would be respectful because we would each be having a private meeting and receiving a mantra, again, means nothing to me, just sounded really weird. And it was a little bit of a strange experience. And yet, it was kind of cool because I was instructed to never tell anyone what my mantra was. Now, of course, as the kind of kid I was, I thought that's just because they gave everyone the same mantra. And they don't want us to tell each other that we're all saying the same thing. But what I was told is that it was a special sound specific to me. And that repeating it out loud would rob it up its power, so to speak. So it was very cool, because I was instructed to keep a secret from my parents. And you don't get told that all the time when you're a kid. But what really drove me crazy was when I got home and tried to coax all my siblings into revealing their mantras, and they wouldn't tell me. But for a long time after that, my dad had specific times, and he would make the entire family go to their rooms, where we were expected to practice saying our mantra quietly in our mind for 20 minutes. Now, 20 minutes is a long time for an 11 year old kid. And I may have tried it now and then. But mostly, I'm pretty sure I just sat on the bed reading my Nancy Drew novels until he called upstairs to say we could come out of our rooms. Now he probably knew we were doing that too. But he just wanted some quiet time so he could have a meditation practice. So fast forward many, many years later, 2006 I'm in the California College of IU beta. And in part of learning how your Veda is the study of mantras, it's part of the curriculum. So let me just take a second here to talk about what a mantra actually is. So mantra is actually an ancient Sanskrit word, and the root of it mn, MN meaning mind, and tra meaning an instrument. So a mantra is actually translated as an instrument of the mind. And it's a really cool story behind them. In India, the ancient sages were set to meditate and listen to the sounds of the universe. They tune in to these vibrations that were just happening in the world as they sat there in silence. And then those vibrations those sounds would be verbalized from the sages to teach others these were mantras. Now because each mantra is composed of different sounds, different vibrations, you might find that certain mantras resonate with you and others don't. So back to I read up while I was studying or your beta, I was also dealing with a really stressful situation with my ex husband. And I began And to notice that as I was doing my homework, doing these practices, practicing the mantra meditations, I started to notice that I was having a lot less anxiety dealing with him and dealing with the situation. And as I became aware that I was feeling less stressed out about the situation, I became more intentional. And when I would notice my mind creating the stories or the drama that minds create, when you're going through stress, right? You think about everything you're going to say what they're going to say, and what's going to happen and what already happened and what might happen and who might think what of it creating drama, right, your thoughts are going wild. And actually, none of this stuff has happened, although you're thinking about it and making yourself sick. So when I would start to catch my mind doing this, I would intentionally begin repeating a mantra until I could actually feel my mind let go, let go of that stress, let go of that anxiousness that tension, that tightness of these thoughts that were creating stress where stress didn't exist, right, I was creating it for myself. And so I began to replace those thoughts with the mantra that would call me and redirect my mind to something a lot more peaceful. And the reason I shared that story with you from when I was a child is that that was the same effect. And then I began to realize that as a child, when I would turn to this mental repetition of the Hail Marys, I was actually turning to a mantra, right, the repetition, that consistent repetition of the same sounds. Now I didn't think of it as a mantra or even have any idea what that was at the time. But looking back, I could see oh, wow, okay, that is what calmed me. That is how I started feeling a sense of peace. I was distracting my mind, even as a kid from something that was scaring me something that was causing stress.
11:54
So how does this help you? Well, let me give you three good reasons why you should consider practicing or incorporating a practice of mantra meditation to support your well being. So number one, there was a study conducted at the National University of Malaysia, and it was published in Psychology Today. This study found that breast cancer survivors were four times as likely to develop post traumatic stress syndrome, six months after treatment as compared to any other type of cancer patient. In addition to that, they were also more likely than other cancer patients to have worse symptoms of PTSD four years after their treatment. Wow, that's that's a lot. Number two, there was a study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention in 2018. And this study compared eight different studies that looked at women who have breast cancer survivors, and the occurrence of depression in these women. Now, across all these eight studies, they found that from 11, to 38%, of these women experienced moderate depression. And from 10 to 69% of these women experienced severe depression after diagnosis of breast cancer. Number three, a study published in The Lancet oncology in 2013, found that anxiety had a higher likelihood than depression, for causing long term problems for both cancer survivors and their spouses compared to healthy people who had not had cancer. That is a lot of emotional crap to process. And it's very, very real. And it happens to a lot of survivors. And when we're processing tough things, you know what our mind does to us? It makes them worse. An untrained mind is a train wreck. No joke. I know, you know what I'm talking about. Now, first of all, from a neuroscience perspective, our brains are wired to look for and to predict danger. In the scope of evolution, it wasn't that long ago that we needed to be constantly assessing the scenery and the environment around us for danger at all times. And depending where you live, or work, you might be still doing that on a regular basis without even really consciously understanding what it is that you're evaluating. So our brains are always telling us something bad is about to happen. And they do that in naturally, in order to keep us away from the bad things so we can live longer. So what happens when that danger, that thing that may end your life is something that very quietly and very You secretively grew inside of you, inside of your own body. Now those thoughts can really do a number on us. But the good news is that we can train our brains to calm down. And we can use practices that change your thought pattern and lay the foundation for a more peaceful, productive and happy life. So in a 2018 study published in psychology, in psychological trauma theory, research practice and policy, they looked at a group of male and female veterans who are suffering from PTSD. And they taught these people the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and they had them practice it for eight weeks. Now, after that, eight weeks, both the results of their EEG, so the electrical monitoring and what was happening in their brains, and their own self reporting, showed that these people were less reactive, they had fewer symptoms of PTSD. And they felt that their quality of life had improved. And even better, and a follow up two months after those results, they reported that they either saw more improvement, or were able to maintain that initial improvement about eight weeks of practice. Psychology today's says that repeating mantras works to calm your brain by distracting it from what's known as the default network. So this default network, according to a study in the journal frontiers in psychology is this process that happens between different parts of your brain. So it's the way these different parts of your brain communicate, it's a thought pattern. And when you don't have your brain focused on something that's right now, current in this moment happening, this default network is what causes your mind to wander, to think about the future, to reflect on the past. And worse than all of those, maybe it causes your mind to think about what other people are thinking about you.
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So if you're concentrating on repeating a mantra in your mind, you're overriding this default network. And that causes all those rapid fire thoughts and anxieties and stories, you're telling yourself, it causes them to go away because it calms your mind and it relieves your body, because you're not stressing yourself out by what you're thinking. Now, if that's not enough to get you seriously thinking about practicing mantras or mindful meditation, listen to this. In a 2015, Washington Post article, Sarah Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, and a side note, you can also see her in an interview in this really cool documentary called the connection. And this documentary is about the mind body connection, and the power to heal ourselves. When we get our minds in the right place with the right practices. You hear from some amazing scientist physicians and true stories of people who used these practices, their mental practices and meditation to just accomplish tremendous healing. So I'll put a link to that in the show notes. But definitely check that out if you get a chance. So back to Sarah Lazar referring she was referring to a study that she conducted on brains of people, she studies yoga and meditation. So she did a study on brains of people who meditated. And she acknowledged that even though science shows that the cortex of our brains shrink as we get older, making it more difficult for us to problem solve and remember things. In her study, she found that that area of the brain, your cortex was the same size and 50 year old people who had meditated regularly as it was in 25 year olds. So especially if you're going through chemo brain, or if you're going through chemo, brain and aging, this is something you might really want to check out some good news there. Now you'll notice that as I talk about this practice, I refer to it as a practice, the use of mantra and meditation as a practice. This is not a one and done thing. And I cannot tell you how many times someone has said to me, Oh, I tried meditation once and it didn't do anything for me. Cool. We're talking about training your brain, creating a new way of thinking and that takes time and it takes practice. So I know you my lovely, busy survivor who tends to everyone else before herself, and feels guilty about making time for yourself. So stay with me for a minute. An absolutely perfect meditation practice, whether it's mantra meditation or mindful meditation, we're talking about maybe doing 20 to 30 minutes a day. Every day, right, that would be absolutely amazing. But if just hearing that causes you a bit of anxiety, I've got you don't worry, hang in there with me. Now you need to start off with making a commitment to at least eight weeks of practice. Okay, so the bigger time first, let's work our way down, making that commitment of eight weeks of time, because it takes time to begin to change the way you think. And it may take longer than that. But you'll definitely, in my experience, notice a difference by that. So if you can commit to at least three times a week, that'd be awesome. And then you have time to do more than three times a week to it. Stay as consistent as you can. But do not beat yourself up or throw your entire practice out the window. If you miss a scheduled time. On the days, you can do more, do more. Now, here's another way that you can incorporate mantra practice into your life. Now, I actually love to practice mantra while I'm driving, especially if I'm going somewhere in rush hour traffic. Now, obviously, I do not have my eyes closed. At this time, I'm just repeating the mantra in my head the entire time that I'm driving. And it's better than going through your morning thinking about cancer. And if you got the right treatment, and if you'll get it again, or what you did wrong, or what you could do better. Do not make yourself sick with thoughts that will literally make you sick. You can use any kind of mantra you like, you can choose one word, you can create a phrase that resonates with you, you can pick any of the amazing beautiful traditional Sanskrit mantras, and you can easily Google those. You can find recordings, English translations online, so that you know if those Sanskrit sounds are meaningful to you or not, and you can even play them in your home or your car for literally creating some good vibes around you right. Now, I also highly recommend the Oprah and Deepak 21 day meditation experience, you can find that on the Chopra Center website. And you can register on that website. And then every couple of months, they do this free 21 day meditation. So each day, a new idea or concept is introduced on whatever the theme of that meditation practices, maybe it's creating abundance or healing or connecting to others. And they'll talk about this idea, and then follow it with a mantra and a few minutes of quiet music that you can practice that mantra, it's pretty cool. I've enjoyed many of them. And it's kind of neat, because you can go through the whole program. And then you can decide if it really worked for you or you enjoyed it. And then they gave you the opportunity to buy it but not a commercial for Deepak and Oprah just saying that that's an experience I've had. And I really enjoyed I look forward to those free meditations. So I just want you to know that there are lots of options. There are lots of ways to introduce this mindfulness, this mantra type of practice. And the difference between a mindfulness meditation and using mantra is in mantra, you're actually using that sound. And you may find a sound that just feels really good to you. And a lot of times, it's easier to start training your mind to be focused and present when you repeating a sound. It is an intentional thing you can do anywhere, anywhere you're walking around, you can be repeating that sign in your head. Whereas mindfulness Yes, you can be having a mindfulness practice, if you're being present in the moment watching, you know how you're eating or noticing everything you're picking up or doing just being really in the moment. And mindfulness based stress reduction is a meditation practice of really focusing on the breath, rather than distracting the mind with the sound, actually focusing on the breath and on the sensations in the body at that time, and training yourself to let other thoughts go as they pop up, rather than just focusing on a sound. So I hope that makes sense. And if it doesn't, you can always reach out to me on Facebook or Instagram and DM me on Facebook, you can find me as Laura Lummer on Instagram, you can find me as the breast cancer recovery coach. And as always, I'll post links to the articles, movies, the websites in the show notes of this episode, which you can find at Laura lummer.com, forward slash 57. So I hope you take some action today and check that out. And get this mantra meditation practice into your life and see how much it helps you. It's a very simple, free thing you can do to support yourself on so many levels. Well, thank you again for listening today. And just a reminder, if you have the time, or if you could make a moment and leave a review for the show. That would be greatly greatly, greatly appreciated. And I will give you a shout out here on the show when you do it. So I'll talk with you next week and until then be good to yourself and remember your entire lifestyle. Everything you do is your medicine. That's what supports your wellness.
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College to the test for then all your doubts your mind is clearer than before your heart is full and wanting more your futures you know you been waiting on
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