Mindfulness – a way of maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment through a gentle, nurturing lens. Self-soothing techniques help you calm and relax when you are feeling overwhelmed both physically and emotionally. They help you to “regulate” so that you can feel like yourself again. There are several self-soothe techniques you can try to stay calm and grounded using your senses. However, for this article, we are focusing on your sense of hearing. Keep reading to find out about different hearing techniques you can use to self-soothe!
Listening to Music
This one is a given! Listening to music – mindfully – is a great way to self-soothe and become one with the moment. Tune in to your favorite song and escape the world through focusing on the melody, the beat, the tone, the lyrics, and the voice of the musician or artist. This will help you will be at ease. It is important to note that you should not listen to music that may trigger you when feeling overwhelmed – for instance, sad music when experiencing sadness – as this will allow your mind to stray away from using mindfulness in coordination with this self-soothe technique.
ASMR
ASMR has become a social media phenomenon over the years – from content creators creating sounds that can be weird and strange to soothing and relaxing – but, what is ASMR? The autonomous sensory meridian response, sometimes auto sensory meridian response, is a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. ASMR has scientifically been proven to be a form of relaxation and can most definitely be used in order to self-soothe using your sense of hearing.
Ambiance Sounds
Being mindful of the moment and only focusing on your sense of hearing when listening to sounds such as ocean waves, waterfalls, rainforests, and other ambiance sounds, created by none other than nature itself, can help you feel grounded and at peace. If you take part in yoga and other forms of meditation, these types of sounds and natural ambiances are great to have on during your sessions. To truly self-soothe mindfully, simply focus on the sound.