ASMR ♥

Growing up I loved listening to my little cousins tell me stories, or hear them flip through the pages of a book, or let them whisper in my ear, or hearing the sounds of color pencils hitting each other. I would get a tingly sensation in my brain and it would send shivers down my spine. Just from listening to the world around me. It felt good, even if I was in a bad mood, doing these things made me happy. I never really knew what to call it until recently.

Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a new term for a phenomenon that has been around for a very long time. It is a distinct tingling feeling that can be felt in the head, scalp, back, or sometimes arms and legs. These tingles start in response to our senses or anything that really stimulates our brains. It is a slightly controversial subject because the response is triggered by different things for different people and it can be something that is quite illusive for scientists to study. It is said that ASMR allows the person to feel euphoric and relief from stress. Personally my watching ASMR videos and looking at aesthetically pleasing things allows me to relax and sleep better at night.

I only recently found the community for ASMR on Youtube. At first it made me a little uncomfortable to watch some of the videos. Some of them were quite personal and others were a little strange. At the same time the videos were so intriguing and I was getting that tingling feeling that I remembered from childhood so I couldn't stop watching them. My curiosity kicked in. The Youtubers, who posts these videos, seem to place a deep trust in the person at home watching. In their videos they share some of their favorite triggers (A trigger is the term they use to identify what gives them the ASMR.). I have found such a huge respect for the people in this community. They all seem so supportive of each other and really strive to make the community a place of positivity and they make it so that their viewers feel special.

Here are some of my favorite triggers(so far):

• Hair brush sounds; the sound it makes when running through hair and just the sounds that the bristles make.
• Crinkling of paper or plastic. 
• Color pencils; the sounds they make when hitting each other and the sound they make against paper.
• Soft speaking or whispering.
• Books; sounds of the pages turning, running finger along the edges, the crinkle sounds the paper makes, and when someone reads a story aloud.

I would definitely recommend listening to an ASMR video when you've had a really bad day and need to de-stress or when you would like to fall asleep but you feel like you can't relax. I hope this sheds the light for some of you and my advice? Never be afraid to try something new!