This experiential workshop series will explore the transformative power of sound and mantras in yoga as tools for cultivating inner strength and emotional resilience. This program offers a space to strengthen not just our inner and outer voice, but also our will.
Inner strength and resilience refer to our capacity to remain steady, compassionate and courageous irrespective of our circumstances. In today’s world, this capacity is continually tested. While many external challenges are beyond our control, our inner responses of how we perceive, process, and respond, are in our hands.
Yet regulating our inner world is not always easy. Sometimes it is the patterns of our own thoughts that create conflict, resistance and weakness.
Ancient literature spanning Yoga (Yogasutras, Hathayogapradipika), Mantras (Upanishads, Naradiya Siksha) and Music (Sangita Ratnakaram, Brhaddesi) speak of multiple, integrated pathways of using Sound as a tool for inner strength and wellbeing.
We will work with:
- Cognitive & psychological aspects of mantras that regulate emotional balance
- Physiological and somatic aspects of sound that rebalance inner body functions
- Physical & behavioral aspects of sound that anchor strength and stability in the body
You will learn powerful and practical yogic methods – using asana, pranayama, mudras, nyasas, mantras, music and bhavanas – to achieve inner strength, clarity and resilience. The program is open to practitioners of all ages and backgrounds. No prior mantra or music experience required.
About the Teacher
Nitya Mohan, daughter of A. G. Mohan and Indra Mohan, is trained in yoga from a very young age. She has been the director of Svastha Yoga & Ayurveda teacher training programs in Singapore for the past 25 years and has trained hundreds of teachers. Trained in Yoga, Chanting, Classical Indian music and Sanskrit, her unique areas of expertise combine traditional Raja yoga and Hatha yoga, along with knowledge of Sanskrit and Vedic chanting, with a graduate degree in Classical Indian music and ancient musical texts.
She conducts seminars, workshops and yoga trainings internationally. She is a skilled, experienced and compassionate teacher and an exceptional singer hailed for her purity of voice.
Program Contents
Topics Covered:
We will explore three integrated pathways to build inner strength and resilience with mantras.
Physical & Behavioral:
Regulation of the body is key to feeling well. When we feel stable and grounded in the body, it becomes much easier for us to work on inner resilience and strength. This pathway requires that we build skills bottom up – starting from movements in vinyasas integrated with mantras, introducing bhavanas with the breath and creating sustainable routines of body work, to let that filter into the higher level responses of our nervous system. We will work with the traditional aspects of Asanas, Prana, Prana bhavanas, Yajna, Vedic Suktams and Nyasas.
- Asana practices as offering (yajna) by unifying bhavanas and affirmations in asanas with sound
- Identify key vinyasas for incorporating bhavanas in daily asana practice
- Mantras for Prana Bhavana to work with deeper inner body sensations in asanas
- Vedic Suktam (special vedic passage) on purification of body and mind
- Nyasas – intentional placement of awareness with mantras in different points in the body
Physiological & Somatic:
The physiological impact of sound comes from the connection of mantras to breath and pranayama. Sound forms the subtler link between breath and mind which is why traditionally Pranayama is defined with a mantra and is the path to interoception – to sense inner body sensations. Sound also has deeper impacts on our physiology in terms of vibrational and bio-regulatory aspects. We will work with deepening Pranayama techniques, Mantras, Svaram, Agni, pitches and regions of the body.
- Different aspects of using Mantras in Pranayama with uchaih, upamsu and manasikam
- Regions of pitches in the body related to the agnis and inner energy – Mandram, Madhyam, Taram
- Dirgha and Sukshma – deepening and lengthening the breath with a mantra with Pratyaveksha
- Sound production techniques for bettering the voice and breath and to ease effort with the breath
Psychological & Cognitive:
All thoughts are inner sounds, the world is one of sound – Sabda prapancam. This is the world view of a set of fascinating ancient texts on Sound. Some of these explore the semantic and phonetic aspects of intonation for attention regulation – what Yoga calls Pratyaveksha – mindfulness. Other psychological aspects of mantras include different affirmations and bhavanas that have powerful impacts on our emotional wellbeing. We will work with Music, tones, mantras, Sanskrit verses and inspirational examples.
- Mantras and phonetics for proper enunciation in Sanskrit for developing mindfulness (pratyaveksha)
- Powerful bhavanas with Aditya (sun) based on the Ramayana, the timeless ancient epic
- Interventions with mantras to promote Sattva (the qualities of stability, inner calm and clarity)
- Musical tones specially for inner strength and exploring emotional responses with rhythm and pitch
- Inspiring examples and stories from ancient sages to develop connections to the elements