68 MILLION WAYS TO TRANSFORM YOUR DAY WITH SOOTHING VIDEOS
HERE are Emma’s top tips to make ASMR work for you – whether you need help getting to sleep, a method for calming anxiety, or simply as a way to unwind at the end of the day...
WORK OUT YOUR OWN TRIGGERS
EMMA recommends thinking about times as a child when you might have felt ‘comforted, absorbed, or dreamy’, such as ‘someone stroking your hair or whispering in your ear’.
‘Now, ask yourself if there’s anything in your environment around you that you find particularly comforting,’ she says. ‘Do you subconsciously play with your hair or fiddle with a piece of jewellery?
‘When you become tired and overwhelmed, what places do you retreat to? What it is that brings comfort to you? Is it a sound or a texture, perhaps?’
If nothing occurs to you, she suggests taking three simple triggers, such as a piece of crinkly plastic, like a wrapper, a small bowl of dried rice and a large make-up brush.
‘Find a quiet, calm place to sit and take three long, slow breaths in and out,’ she says. ‘Take one of the sound triggers – the wrapper or the rice – and slowly and carefully make sounds with it. Notice how it makes you feel.
‘Next, take a touch trigger, for instance the brush, and use it to draw shapes on your forearm – up and down, round and round in circles. Is there a sound you liked the most? Did you enjoy any of the touch prompts? These could be your triggers.’
For Emma, stroking her face with a make-up brush is enough to calm her instantly.
The key, she says, lies in noticing what’s around us and becoming more aware of the impact it has on our senses. Then we can begin to incorporate the sensations we find relaxing into our daily lives. WHERE TO FIND YOUR TINGLES IDEALLY, try to be somewhere comfortable with as few distractions as possible. Watching a ASMR video in bed right before you go to sleep may help.
However, it’s not necessary to be alone, she says. You can experience the full effects of videos in a public place, maybe on your journey home.
Emma recommends wearing headphones to drown out background noise.
Next, decide what video to watch, and there are plenty to choose from. When you search ‘ASMR’ on YouTube, there are more than 68million results.
Emma suggests thinking of sounds you might normally feel comforted by and search from there. If you don’t know what these are, try videos with the most common triggers, including gentle tapping, brushing, crinkling and whispering.
Many people choose not to watch the visuals at all and just listen to the sounds. There are also many sound-only playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.
MAKE IT PART OF YOUR ROUTINE
EMMA swears by a nightly routine, watching an ASMR video as she gets ready for bed and using ‘self-soothing’ techniques such as stroking the inside of her arms with her fingertips. Even an activity as mundane as making a cup of tea affords an opportunity for ASMR. While stirring the tea, ‘listen to the gentle clink of the spoon against the cup.’ If this is beginning to sound a little absurd, Emma acknowledges that this is a common initial reaction. ‘It’s so alien to people that you can sit for half an hour watching someone tapping on a cup,’ she says. ‘So many people would see it as ridiculous.’ But she urges everyone to put aside their prejudices and give it a try. ‘Lots of us are caught in a trap of being busy all the time and feeling anxious if we’re not doing something for a moment,’ she says. ‘ASMR isn’t just about experiencing the tingle, or physical sensation. It’s a way of taking a small amount of time to focus on yourself and feel calmer. ‘And in this incredibly hectic, stressful world, we can all benefit from that.’ Unwind Your Mind: The Life-Changing Power Of ASMR, by Emma WhispersRed, is published by Rider on Thursday at £14.99. Order for £11.99 before September 30 on 0844 517 0640 or at mailshop.co.uk.