Chanting OmEternal OM sits around a single chanted syllable, giving your mind and body one steady point to gather around. The Om repeats and settles into a slow rhythm, and depending on how you want to listen, a sitar melody and soft background textures either wrap around the chant or fall away entirely, leaving just the tone itself.

The Sound Behind the Chant

Om is regarded as one of the most sacred sounds across Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, described as the primordial sound from which creation arises.

Traditionally it's chanted as three joined sounds, A, U and M, moving from the throat down through the chest and out through the lips. That physical movement is part of why chanting it feels different from simply listening to music: it asks something of your breath and body, not just your ears.

There's a physiological reason a long, drawn-out Om has stuck around for centuries as a calming practice. A 2011 study in the International Journal of Yoga found that Om chanting quiets activity in the limbic system, the brain's emotional processing centre, while activating the vagus nerve, the same pathway involved in slowing the heart rate and easing the body out of fight-or-flight. Our answer to whether music can actually stimulate the vagus nerve goes into more detail on how sound reaches that pathway.

Eternal OM sits in our Anxious/Overwhelmed section for that reason, though it works just as well any time you want to settle into stillness rather than push through. Get comfortable, breathe down into your abdomen rather than your chest, and let the chant repeat for as long as you need.

Benefits

• May help slow breathing and heart rate as the vagus nerve responds to the sustained, low tone

• Can support a sense of grounding during anxious or overwhelmed moments, since chanting bypasses the need to think your way to calm

• Offers a physical breathwork anchor, since a full Om chant naturally lengthens the exhale

• Gives a shared point of focus for meditation, without requiring any prior chanting experience

  
  

Everyday Use

• Use it during seated meditation, breathing in on the silence and out through the chant

• Keep it low and steady in the background if during a stressful time focusing on it feels like too much

• Stress Relief: Chant AUM 10 times in the morning and 10 times at night to shift your nervous system out of fight-or-flight mode.

• Mental Reset: Practice mānasa-japa (mental chanting) silently in your head when you need immediate calm in a public or stressful environment.

• Sinus and Vagus Cleansing: Focus on the physical facial and cranial vibrations of the "M" sound to help clear minor head tension and stimulate relaxation.

  
  

I've got a great Vagus stimulation track here, which may also be of interest. 🙏