ASMR

What is ASMR? Technically it means Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. But to strangers ASMR is awkward videos of people scratching on stuff and whispering that makes them feel uncomfortable. Of course, if you are closed minded to new experiences and aren't able to put up with a little awkwardness then that is all it is ever going to be to you. But if you can gather all of your strength and and put aside your ego (can you taste the sarcasm?) you may find an experience that benefits your life in many ways that you did not expect. Have you ever felt your head, scalp, back, etc. tingle from a certain sound, visual or experience? Many people claim to experience the "head tingles" from simple triggering sounds such as tapping, scratching, or the sounds marbles make. Those tingles are ASMR! This does not include loud noises, most of the time it's very soft noises. For example,  this video by Kenneth Lineberger on YouTube. This was actually the very first video that introduced me to ASMR years ago. I was having trouble going to sleep so I thought I would look for relaxing videos and this one popped up! Trust me, I was like "Okayyyy... this guy is whispering and it's weird, I hope no one catches me watching this.. oh, his hands are awkward.." but i kept watching and next thing I know I'm waking up to my alarm clock.

At first I thought I just bored myself to sleep, but I quickly found myself not only falling asleep from these videos, but relaxed and happy as well. Some people experience ASMR from intimate whispering (intimate, not sexual, please understand this), or even just mouth sounds in general! The sounds your mouth makes when you smack or pucker your lips or even the sounds you make when eating. For some people, me particularly, and I'm sure MANY other people, mouth sounds are disgusting. But when I hear them in an ASMR setting they don't really effect me. Some people say mouth sounds during every day life make them want to slap someone but in an ASMR setting are extremely relaxing. Some people (my mom particularly) HATES tapping, scratching and other typical ASMR triggering sounds, they might find them extremely annoying. Some people experience ASMR during a doctors visit, getting their nails done, an eye exam,  a facial, or any personal attention to them at all. I think our brains are like, "oh hey, I like this!" Now this is where the ASMR videos get weird, hah! There are SO many "role play" ASMR videos on YouTube right now, and let me warn you, they are going to be uncomfortable. Especially to a newcomer to the ASMR community. Yes, we are a community, and I will go into that later.. But because so many people find personal attention to be relaxing or induce ASMR, the videos do really good. There are role playing videos of getting your hair cut, your ears massaged, a variety of medical exams, etc. They even have "binaural" technology that make it sound real, and sometimes can even feel it, especially if you wear covering ear phones. My favorite ASMR YouTube account is HeatherFeather and I love her apothecary video.

I mostly love HeatherFeather because she's always so creative and uses many different techniques in her videos. In this apothecary video she gives you different pills to take that give you magic-like abilities, such as one that you can see the "auras" of people with and one that you can hear voices in your head giving you good advise. I can totally imagine "The Apothecary Plume" being on Diagon Alley from Harry Potter! And to tell you the truth, I've never even seen the whole video, I always fall asleep long before it's over.
Another trigger of ASMR is visual, possibly my favorite. It could be watching someone gracefully move their hands and fingers while they talk or finger brush their hair. Most of the time it's just soft delicate movements. Unexpectedly, I found myself watching "gloving" videos in order to relax. I don't know if anyone has experienced head tingles while watching someone glove, but I do know I get the same relaxing reaction. I think gloving is visually pleasing and involves personal attention. I'm not into Raves, but if you don't know what gloving is I'll tell you as much as I know. Gloving is what people are doing these days at raves, they have gloves with colorful lights at the tips of their fingers and they dance them around in the dark to achieve a mesmerizing show. I'm sure other circumstances make what I think they call a "light show" a bit more mind blowing, but to me it's so super relaxing.

For me head tingles are rare, it's gotta be something really spectacular to get my brain that stimulated I guess? haha. And not everybody experiences the tingles. Sometimes people even become "immune" from tingles because they do it too much, or it may become a habit. Most people say if you just take a little break it'll come back to you. But there are many other benefits to watching ASMR (and related) videos than your head feeling all fizzly. Like I mentioned before, it's very relaxing. Many people claim watching ASMR videos help with insomnia, anxiety and panic attacks. This is apparent in my own life. I have trouble sleeping every now and then but I definitely do not suffer from insomnia. I DO suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. Both of them have been the cause of some major depression in the past. When I would have a panic attack I would cut myself, burn myself, etc. It makes no sense to me now but back then it's just how I dealt with those circumstances. Since then I've been set free of the chains of anxiety and panic, and when I feel one coming on, after I've gone to my Heavenly Father, a good ole ASMR video helps me get back to feeling good again. Don't get me wrong, ASMR is no miracle, but the way God works is. SO, I HIGHLY recommend watching an ASMR video if you suffer from ANY of these problems. Especially if you want to skip the medicine route to these problems. I'm currently converting to an all natural lifestyle and it's a great alternative to sleeping or depression pills, if you want to try it. (Please talk to your Doctor before you decide you want to stop taking a prescription!)

The ASMR community. It's nothing explicit, just people who share an interest in ASMR. That includes people who make the videos and people who like to watch the videos. We are an online community, at least I've never heard of an actual home community of people all creating ASMR experiences for one another, even though that would be awesome! It would be so quiet, we'd all be whispering in each others ears and giving massages and drawing on each others skin, ha! {Maybe we could combine with the Tiny House community and wouldn't that just be the cutest thing ever, my dream!} We are a "community" because we genuinely care about each other, people actually take time out of their day to help you get tingles in your head or help with an actual problem, that's awesome! That's really a testament to what our community stands for, because really, we are all strangers to each other, but we're all helping each other out. The ASMR artist helps out the watcher and the watcher thanks, appreciates and encourages the artist and the artist encourages other artists. Does that make sense? Sometimes we even experience ridicule together. Most of the time it's from ignorant people who have no idea what ASMR really is and how much it helps people. They hear whispering and weird sounds and assume we're a bunch of freaks. I have a Vine account dedicated to short ASMR clips. A couple of months ago the Vine part of the ASMR community was attacked with hate. The ASMR hash tag (#) had gotten popular and was trending (this is social media talk). So some decently popular account known for his humor, made fun of an ASMR vine and it sparked all hell breaking loose. Most of our accounts were bombarded with rude/hateful comments and messages. Then some people (mostly pre-teen one direction fans) started making vines mocking ASMR with loud obnoxious sounds. Okay, whatever, the problem was that many people would go to the ASMR hash tag for their anxiety and such. So instead of helping it really hurt people. Eventually the first guy to make fun realized that he had made a mistake, followed by everyone else. But during that time us ASMR accounts sort of banded together to inform people and created an even larger community and gained lots of "new members". On YouTube, I've never looked at the comments but I'm sure the accounts get lots of hate too, considering how popular ASMR is getting and the sheer number of uneducated people who want to share their opinion. I'm also very sure that they get lots of love, if you send out love you're gonna receive it.

You can visit my account MermaidASMR here, or I highly recommend visiting Asmrlove here.

I would consider Vine and YouTube the two main places to watch ASMR videos. I know there are a few accounts on Instagram and maybe (big maybe, more like doubt) there are some on Facebook. There may be some groups on FB that's for people who enjoy ASMR and give advise or just chat but that's all I can see that being. It's not very popular on Instagram either because used to, the videos didn't loop. That means they didn't instantly and automatically start over. They do now, but you have to press on the video to hear the sound and I have always experienced bad quality videos on IG. The only good things I'd say about any Instagram accounts are now they DO loop and they're capable of being almost twice as long as Vine videos. So if you get the chance, it wouldn't hurt to follow some of them, I know a few of them are actually quite good! Vine is a great place to go if you don't want to dedicate a bunch of time in YouTube, it's quick and short and you can find a variety of triggers. Then YouTube is going to go a lot deeper, but you're gonna have to spend more time getting to the triggers. So both are great and have a separate time and place.

I hope you are thoroughly informed, and can look into ASMR with confidence. I have tried my best to include everything I know and I hope you can experience many tingles and relaxing moments.