A Simple Self-Care Technique

Categories: Blog, blog Apr 20, 2020


There is a great deal of stress in the air lately. We are in the middle of the Corona Chronicles and I’m sure you’ve felt it.

There is a heaviness, a weighty sadness and a combination of fear, grief, and anxiety. You can actually feel it in the air. It’s heavier in some places than others. I’ve found it to be particularly heavy in my local grocery store. While it’s not stocked with paper products and cleaning supplies, it is full of an uneasy sadness that can be seen in unsure eyes. I’m not sure I have ever felt anything like this before. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I’ve even imagined getting in the shower to wash it off of me. 

 

Last week, while in the grocery store, I discovered I have an interesting self-soothing tactic. It was a spontaneous and continual action but It took me a while to realize that I was doing it. I was humming. Not a happy tune, but I soothing tune. And that’s what it was doing. It was soothing me, comforting me, maybe even healing me in the moment. 

 

You don’t know how much you miss joyous eyes until you stop seeing them. You don’t even know how much you miss intent, judgmental eyes until all you see are sad ones. Somehow, my deeper me figured out a way to minister to my soul, I was humming to lift the weight of the atmosphere away from myself, to protect myself from the heaviness all around me. 

 

When my children were babies and they were upset, scared, mad or hurt, I would often rock them, sway them, and hum lullabies to them. I held, I loved them, I moved them, and I hummed to them. It was not something I was taught to do, it was something that flowed out of me, something I was made to do. It was instinctive and most of the time, it was always the way to soothe them. 

 

Last week, now, I am the child. I see hurt, anger, fear, depression, and uncertainty. Not only do I see it, I feel it. The funny thing is, I don’t just feel my own emotions, I feel the weight of others. There’s a totality to it. Anyway, without consciously knowing what to do, I have discovered something much deeper in me does know what to do. So I found myself humming. And I found myself being soothed, and calmed, and loved.

 

Don’t miss this.

 

If I, if you, were made to hum, to rock, to sway, to love your child, your friend, or your pet. If you were made to comfort someone, and no one taught you how to do it, but you instinctively knew how to do it because you were made to do it, then you must also be made to receive it. There can be no other way around this.

 

Could it be true that a deeper part of me, or a wiser part of me, knew how to love me while I was feeling weighed down in my search to find my family's nourishment for the week? Yes.

Could it be that all of us, no matter how stressed we are, no matter how focused we are on our own stories could still be loved and tended to by Something greater than ourselves though perhaps even from within ourselves? Yes. I think so. 

 

Right now as I write this, I’m wondering if what I was feeling in the grocery store last week was the weight of sadness or the weight of Love. Maybe what I was also experiencing was the expression of Love, humming to soothe my soul, to soothe the air in the store even. 

 

Regardless, humming on it’s own is quite miraculous. It vibrates your whole body, it lowers your stress response, it helps increase and improve blood flow throughout your entire body, it helps rebuild, repair, and create neural pathways, and it helps you to breathe better. 

 

Try it for yourself.

Just sit, or go for a walk and hum. Keep your lips shut, breathe in through your nose and hum as you exhale. Hum a song, hum a sound, hum a breath, or whatever. Just hum.

It is a phenomenal way to offer yourself some TLC when you feel like you just don’t know what to do. For me, it was a phenomenal way to receive some TLC when I didn’t even know I needed it. I can’t be alone in this because that’s not the design. 

 

Hum on, my friends. 


Comments (2)

  1. Suzie gullett:
    Apr 20, 2020 at 04:46 AM

    Before this went down couole months back I was contemplating the same type of thing. We were given what we need to sooth
    God knew we would have moments of loneliness, sadness and anxiety. He built in our ability to regulate. Especially for those who may not know how to. Babies coo, people whistle, those with autistism are designed with a natural desire to calm . When we are faced with the unknown. We need to go back to the basics. All the way back, and maybe even do some humming or cooing.

    Reply

  2. andrew hutchinson:
    May 02, 2020 at 09:49 AM

    Love that. Changing our frequency through vibrations. From what i understand, you are feeling the feelings of those around you because your heart is open in the literal sense - I'm sure you already know this but i wanted to say it anyway. This is what happens to people who's heart is truly open/opening (it's the heart and literal and metaphorical sense, many would say the "centre" of the nervous system around the solar plexus/psoas is involved too, as much as we can ever say it's one area of the body/spirit over another - it's that "X" again) and who are strong enough - They become able to absorb the (negative) energy of others and "convert" it. Obviously we can all do this to some extent, and we can do the opposite too, turning "positive" energy into "negative", depending on the place/state we are in - I'm no expert but from stuff i've read and a couple of people i have known go through a process many would call "the path of enlightenment ", this rings very true - being able to deeply feel the hurt and sorrow of those around them. Thank you for the reminder of this simple and yet powerful God given technique.

    Reply


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