Can’t shake off pandemic-induced brain fog? This musical meditation is reputed to be excellent for memory and stress relief
SHOULD I TRY?
Mindfulness sounds great in theory, but many of us struggle without something concrete ‘to do’. For the fidgety or easily distracted, step forward kirtan kriya, a 1000-year-old singing meditation offering all the benefits of mindfulness, but with a multisensory dimension that means you won’t feel so alone with your thoughts (often a subtle form of torture).
Kirtan kriya is a practice from kundalini yoga, focusing on the breath and chanting. Apart from being an all-round stress reliever, kirtan kriya purports to have specific benefits, mainly for cognition and memory (so if you’ve put your keys in the bin again, or can’t remember which season of Schitt’s Creek you’re on. it might be worth trying).
Some dementia charities even recommend it to help stave off mental decline. ‘There’s evidence kirtan kriya can delay and even reverse the onset of Alzheimer’s disease,’ says Jessica Banks, aka Sat Shakti Kaur, interim chair of the UK Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association.
Kirtan kriya also slots right in with the go-slow, back-to-basics vibe that Covid has triggered in many. Don’t worry, though, there’s no need to be good at singing.
What’s involved?
Kirtan kriya is a daily meditation combining simple finger positions, or mudras, with chanting. A session is designed to last a manageable 12 minutes, making it theoretically easy to squeeze in to your day. The practice involves repeatedly singing the mantra ‘Saa, taa, naa, maa,’ which is, roughly, the Sanskrit for ‘Birth, life, death, rebirth’. As you chant, move your thumbs along your fingertips, first reciting the mantra out loud, then whispering it, then repeating it silently in your head, before working back through whispering to finish with reciting out loud again. Ideally, you should keep your eyes closed throughout to fully engage with the experience. There are plenty of videos on YouTube with guidance on the ‘tune’ (the notes are A G F G). There’s sometimes also a visualisation aspect, where you imagine energy flowing in through your crown and out through your ‘third eye’.
‘Practise wherever you can find a comfortable seat, whether cross-legged on the floor or in a chair at your desk,’ adds Banks. ‘Just make sure you’re sitting upright with your spine long and shoulders relaxed.’ To perfect your technique, she recommends finding a trained teacher at kundaliniyoga.org.uk.
What are the benefits?
Hopefully, a sharper mi
