The vagus nerve runs from your brain, behind your ears and down to your stomach. It helps your nervous system move between ‘fight and flight’ mode and ‘rest and digest’. In an attempt to reduce chronic pain, anxiety, or even just give yourself a lift on those days when you’re feeling a ‘bit down’ it doesn’t hurt to activate this more positive version of our nervous system.
I’ve previously posted several YouTube videos about activating the vagus nerve, but today I want to specifically mention humming.
About a year ago, when I first discovered the idea of humming your way to good health, I was skeptical. Now, it’s one of the more enjoyable parts of my routine. I won’t pretend I do it every day, but I do try to practice it a couple of times a week. Sometimes it’s a simple as humming along to the music that I am listening to. Other times, I intentionally close my eyes and place my fingers over my ears, close my eyes and listen to myself say the vowels of the alphabet (a-e-i-o-u) as ‘slow and low’ as I can. It sets up a deep resonance in my head and heart and the more I practice, the longer and slower I can make each vowel last. Sometimes I hum the whole alphabet (a-b-c…x-y-z) when I’m doing the dishes. The scientists still can’t explain exactly how humming helps our neuro-physical being, they just know that it does.
More recently, I resorted to humming after a near miss car crash, as a means of staying calm while driving home. Obviously (well, hopefully), I didn’t close my eyes or put my hands over my ears. I just slowly and lowly said each letter all the way from A to Z. It takes quite a while to get through the 26 letters; plenty of time to calm down. When my mind started to go back to the near miss, I started the alphabet again as a way of re(mis)directing my mind.
Humming the alphabet does move your mind ‘off task’ ever so slightly, so you shouldn’t do it for the first time in a car, only after you’ve been practicing for a while, and never do it whilst driving if you can feel a migraine coming on.
If you’re not sure that humming is something you’re willing to try to help yourself holistically heal, then just start by humming along to the music that you listen to. Do it mindfully and recognize how the vibrations move through your face and chest. Recognise how the vibrations change when you hum a higher or lower note, or the difference between quick and slow notes, or how different it feels when your mouth is open or closed. See if it makes you feel better.
If you’re ready to try humming to heal, here’s a few links that I’ve tried over the last year and recommend (don’t be discouraged if you can’t initially hold the ‘mmm-ah-umm’ sounds as long as they do):
(3 mins)Balance Your Nervous System With This Humming Technique (youtube.com)
(3 mins)Hum to Activate the Vagus Nerve (youtube.com)
((2 mins into) 4 mins) Vagus Nerve Exercises for Relaxation – YouTube
(7 mins) 6 Qigong Healing Sounds For Emotional Balance | Kerrie Womersley, Insight Timer
(13 mins) Balancing Our Energy: Vocal Toning Practice | Dora Kamau (insighttimer.com)
If you’re interested in what others have to say about the benefits of humming, here a few links (apologies for the heavy ad-presence on some sites):
(4 mins) Humming Your Way to Health – Dr Alan Mandell, DC (youtube.com)
How Humming Can Help Anxiety and is Good for Your Health (oprahdaily.com)
Why Humming Could Be Your Ticket to Near-Instant Calm | Well+Good (wellandgood.com)
Is humming healthy? Mmm, here’s what the evidence says (theconversation.com)
If you’re really keen, here’s a research paper (they conclude that humming IS a stress-reliever):
Take care-air-aiiiiiiiir,
Linda.
The Mindful Migraine 
Leave a comment