A Quick Way to Regulate Your Nervous System When You’re Overwhelmed By the World
A Quick Way to Regulate Your Nervous System When You’re Overwhelmed by the World
The world has been an overwhelming and traumatic place of late. I’m writing these words in early December 2023, but they could easily apply to many points of time over the last few years.
I’ve been waiting to write a blog post until I knew just what to say.
Since October 7th, so many innocent Israeli and Palestinian lives have been lost – and so many others around the world have been irrevocably changed by loss, trauma, grief, and fear.
The war is ongoing and the feelings around it are changing and evolving, and there’s no end in sight. In the trauma therapy world, there’s a big difference between a one-time event and a traumatic incident that goes on and on.
We’re now in the on and on stage, as the war and the complex feelings around it don’t show any signs of letting up soon.
If your heart feels heavy - you’re not alone.
If you’ve been feeling afraid, overwhelmed, angry, sad, frozen, anxious, unsafe – you’re not alone.
I’ve felt all of these myself over the last two months.
I want to share with you one thing that’s been helpful for me – humming.
Is it everything? No.
Is it something? Yes.
How Humming Can Help Your Nervous System
Humming can help calm your nervous system when you’re feeling anxious and bring energy and movement when you’re feeling frozen.
How on earth can humming help you cope with something as traumatic as war? Humming helps to stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a key part of your parasympathetic nervous system and is responsible for helping to calm the body and mind in stressful situations.
According to Dr. Arielle Schwartz of the Center for Resilience Informed Therapy, “The vagus nerve passes through the vocal cords and the inner ear and the vibrations of humming is a free and easy way to influence your nervous system states.”
It’s one reason why chanting “OM” can feel so nourishing, especially at the end of a yoga class.
From experience, I can simply say that humming brings me back into my body and makes me feel more grounded. It’s helpful at any stressful moment in the day, but it’s something that is especially important when I find the news of the day to be particularly painful or distressing.
How To Try Humming & What Comes Next
Humming is super accessible because you don’t need any equipment, and you can do it anywhere. I often recommend to clients to try humming in various places and at various times of day to notice how it impacts them – in the shower, in the morning, before bed, on the subway, etc.
You also don’t need any experience with singing or humming to benefit.
To get you started, I invite you to use my two minute guided humming track.
I would love your feedback. Let me know if you find the humming track helpful right now and when you have tried humming to reduce anxiety and come back to yourself.
As I said above, humming is something, not everything.
If you find that you are struggling to balance the stresses of the everyday, particularly in this moment of collective trauma, I invite you to learn more about my approach to psychotherapy and how I can help you navigate these difficult times. You can read frequently asked questions about starting therapy with me here and schedule a free therapy intro call here.
About the Author
Maya is a music therapist and psychotherapist in NYC and online across New York State. She specializes in working with people coping with traumatic experiences - including C-PTSD/childhood trauma, intergenerational trauma and trauma responses to the current world.
As an experienced music psychotherapist, she guides her clients into understanding and calming their overwhelmed nervous systems through creative and somatic methods, and accessing authentic sources of strength and resilience as they process traumatic memories and relationships.
If you’re interested in working with Maya, you can learn more here or schedule your free intro call for therapy.
You don’t have to stay stuck - it’s time to reclaim your rhythm.