How Does Humming, Sighing & Singing Help Anxiety? (6 min)

Hey there,

It's Christine Collins,

And we have a really fun topic today around humming,

Sighing,

And singing in terms of alleviating anxiety.

Now there are a few different reasons why these vocal tools can have this kind of an impact on us physiologically,

Neuroscientifically,

And one of those has to do with vagus tone activation.

So humming creates a steady vibration that directly stimulates the vagus nerve.

Sighing can also trigger the parasympathetic nervous system through that extended exhale.

And exhaling helps to relax the body.

So that's the vagal tone.

There's also an element of breathing pattern regulation.

So when we're humming,

It kind of forces us to have a slower,

More controlled breath.

When we're sighing,

We're releasing tension through the exhale.

And in singing,

We're actually creating more structured breathing patterns that are necessary in order to sustain the singing.

And that can help to kind of counteract shallow rapid breathing that tends to happen when we're stressed or feeling anxious.

Now all three of these activities,

Humming,

Sighing,

And singing,

Can help to shift us into an alpha brainwave state from a beta brainwave.

So if you're not familiar with the different brainwaves,

Alpha and theta brainwaves are known to be more relaxed.

They're kind of that twilight in between fully awake and fully asleep that we slip into as we're drifting off to sleep,

So alpha and theta brainwaves are much more relaxed states.

We can also access those brainwave states through other tools like hypnosis and yoga nidra,

But humming,

Sighing,

And singing also help to activate that brainwave state for us.

Now there are also psychological benefits where being able to concentrate and focus our attention and our energy into these activities can help to distract us from the thing that may be worrying us or that's causing the anxiety.

There's also a a sense of being very self-soothing.

And so in some ways,

It's not totally unlike a kitten purring.

Now kittens do purr for a variety of reasons and self-soothing is not the only one,

But it is an interesting connection to make that we too have some of these mechanisms that we can use for ourselves to alleviate our own anxiety and stress.

And some of the incredible benefits come from working with our body's own natural responses,

Rather than trying to force relaxation to happen.

So we may see a bit of release of dopamine and oxytocin during these activities,

As well as endorphins,

And then a reduction in cortisol,

Which is our stress hormone.

It can improve heart rate variability and engages multiple regions of the brain in coordination with each other.

It can also help to regulate respiratory rhythm or breathing patterns.

And interestingly,

It can also help in terms of processing emotion.

Now,

This is something I discovered completely by accident and without any knowledge of how it might work when I had a significant loss in my life several years ago.

I lost a very close family member and I found myself singing and it was very interesting because that's something that I do,

You know,

Sometimes just around the house,

You know,

Prepping in the kitchen.

I've always been someone who just kind of sings and it's totally for fun.

It's not anything professional and I certainly wouldn't say I'm professional.

Particularly good at it either.

However,

It is something that I enjoy and I've always found it soothing and relaxing.

It's something that I would do while driving,

You know,

Put some music on,

Sing along.

And I noticed that during this period of grief,

I found myself singing more and in different ways.

And in hindsight,

I recognize now that it was almost like a tool for me as part of my process of grieving and helping me in many ways to overcome some of the emotions that I could not necessarily articulate or talk about or even truly think about or think through.

Through or process through at a conscious level so I was doing some emotional processing at a subconscious level and that is where there is truly a value in us having tools like humming sighing and singing and others at our disposal because sometimes the emotion is too deep or too inexplicable,

Or we're just not fully in touch with even what it is and the enormity of all of it.

And so being able to access and heal at a deeper subconscious level can be very powerful.

And until we connect the next time,

I wish you the most magical and creative rest of your day.