Blog

Mantra for Addiction Recovery and Inner Peace with Kia Miller & Tommy Rosen

Addiction is often described as a cycle of negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. For many, breaking free from this cycle feels impossible. Yet, ancient wisdom offers a simple but powerful tool—mantra practice. By consciously repeating sacred sounds or affirmations, we can shift from destructive thought patterns into states of peace, connection, and healing.

In this conversation, Tommy Rosen and Kia Miller share their personal insights on how mantra transforms addictive patterns, expands consciousness, and restores a sense of meaning and unity.

About Tommy Rosen...

Continue Reading...

Sacred Activism vs. Personal Sādhanā: Finding Balance, Avoiding Burnout

How do we show up for a world in crisis without burning out or bypassing our own healing?

This heartfelt dialogue between Anandra and Kathy Bolte explores the delicate, often confusing dance between sacred activism and personal sādhanā. With gentle honesty and lived wisdom, they reflect on how to stay spiritually rooted while remaining compassionately engaged in a turbulent world.

This isn’t about finding perfect answers—it’s about listening deeply, honoring your inner rhythms, and discovering that activism can take many forms. Sometimes it's a sound bath. Sometimes ...

Continue Reading...

Top 30 Sound Yoga Therapy Professional Offerings

This year marks a milestone: 10 years since the first cohort of Heart of Sound teacher trainees gathered to immerse themselves in the transformative practice of nāda yoga and mantra-based healing.

Since then, hundreds of graduates have carried the essence of this lineage-rooted, heart-centered training into the world—into yoga studios, trauma recovery centers, hospitals, cancer wards, classrooms, and homes.

And in this tenth year, our current trainees are showing us just how far the ripple has reached.

As part of their final practicum, each student designs and deliv...

Continue Reading...

Sound Yoga Therapy vs. KÄ«rtan: What’s the Difference?

A lot of folks assume I'm a performing kīrtan musician like so many others out there... however I'd like to be clear that while I love kīrtan and enjoy singing with people very much, my true and deepest love (and the thing I'm most experienced with) is being a sound yoga therapist leading a chant experience. 

Kīrtan vs. Sound Yoga Therapy: 4 differences

There are many differences between performing kīrtan musicians and sound yoga therapists leading a chant experience here are four main distinctions.

What a Sound Yoga Therapist does:

  1. Prioritizes the participant's ...
Continue Reading...

Kīrtan Chanting and the Brain: Mirror Neurons and Direct Sensory Experience

Kīrtan is a call-and-response musical form that's unique!

I have been musing about this lately, and recently wrote a short piece about this I thought I'd share on my blog. :)

With call and response mantra chanting, participants in the chant experience get to enjoy both: ⁠

1⁠
Listening to a leader sing or chant a mantra (and often accompanied by wonderfully skilled musicians in the kīrtan band!) ⁠

This activates the mirror neurons or what I connect to the "guru principle", giving the participant a sense of aspirational elation when observing someone do something that's...

Continue Reading...

10 Years of Heart of Sound: Raising the Bar for Sound Yoga Therapy Worldwide

This year marks a milestone: 10 years since the first cohort of Heart of Sound teacher trainees gathered to immerse themselves in the transformative practice of nāda yoga and mantra-based healing in Rishikesh, India!

Since then, hundreds of graduates have carried the essence of this lineage-rooted, heart-centered training into the world—into yoga studios, trauma recovery centers, refugee camps, hospitals, cancer wards, classrooms, and homes.

And in this tenth year, we want to give a shoutout to the diversity and ingenuity of our trainees! It's inspiring and humbling ...

Continue Reading...

AUM Chanting Personality Type Quiz: What kind of OM chanter are you?

What Happens When a Group OM is Being Led?

Whether you're attending a yoga class, joining a kÄ«rtan chant session, or receiving sound healing, there's often that beautiful, shared moment when a group OM is chanted together. For some, it’s a moment of blissful resonance. For others, it can be surprisingly awkward or uncomfortable — even if you love the idea of chanting.

As someone who has spent decades immersed in the practice and teaching of sacred sound, I’ve witnessed all kinds of responses to this one simple syllable. Here’s a little breakdown I put together — see ...

Continue Reading...

Benefits of Daily Mantra Meditation (Self-Care through Sound Healing Yoga)

Evidence-Based Benefits of Mantra Chanting

In our fast-paced, high-stress world, ancient practices are making a profound comeback—and for good reason. One such practice, mantra chanting, is emerging as a powerful tool for wellness, backed not only by thousands of years of tradition but also by cutting-edge neuroscience.

Whether you’re a seasoned yogi or just beginning to explore the power of sound, mantra meditation offers a unique, holistic approach to healing and transformation. Here’s a closer look at the evidence-based benefits of chanting:

1. Reduces Anxiety & ...

Continue Reading...

Shakti Mantra FAQ: What is Iccha Shakti? Are Goddess mantras only for women?

What are Shakti Mantras?

  • Śakti Mantras are Sanskrit mantra soundĀ vibrations that stimulate an inner experience of energy
  • Shakti mantras tend to have a predominant I sound (sounds like eeee in the word glee, the English word for very very happy!)
  • That vowel sound is considered the primal shakti mantra, because when we make that sound in our bodies, we naturally feel what is called "icchā śakti"

What is Iccha Shakti?

  • Icchā Śakti is a term that describes the power to create.
  • It's a trembling sensation, full of lively vibration that is the impulse to act, to ma...
Continue Reading...

My Story of Assimilation: What it taught me about Nāda Yoga, Mantra Shakti, Tantra, and Patriarchy

A bit of my story...

After almost assimilating to be a ā€œgood Indian girlā€ studying these traditions since I was 19, I woke up *just in time* to realize that there are 5,000+ years of baked in patriarchal systems of oppression in nearly every aspect of yoga culture. (Not to mention my own American culture!)

I had been baking inside the whole assimilation enchilada for 2 decades:

  • wearing full saree every day for years, as comfortable as putting on sweats.
  • Studying HindustanÄ« classical vocal music in New Delhi with my beloved music Guruji.
  • Speaking Hindi and servin
  • ...
Continue Reading...
1 2 3
Close

Let's stay connected!

Join our list to hear about upcoming FREE events + a monthly newsletter!