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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
The vibration carries through your throat and your inner ear, and humming lengthens the out breath for you without any counting. Choose your own note and your own pressure on the ears, and take your hands away whenever you want to. Thirty seconds is a fair first attempt. Some people find it soothing immediately, others find it strange, and there is no need to persist with something unpleasant.
'remember your Lord inwardly, in all humility and awe, without raising your voice' (Quran 7:205). Quiet sound made mainly for your own ears has a place here.
الأعراف
وَٱذۡكُر رَّبَّكَ فِي نَفۡسِكَ تَضَرُّعࣰ ا وَخِيفَةࣰ وَدُونَ ٱلۡجَهۡرِ مِنَ ٱلۡقَوۡلِ بِٱلۡغُدُوِّ وَٱلۡأٓصَالِ وَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ ٱلۡغَٰفِلِينَ
[Prophet], remember your Lord inwardly, in all humility and awe, without raising your voice, in the mornings and in the evenings- do not be one of the heedless
Qur’an 7:205read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review and meta analysis of randomised trials of heart rate variability biofeedback, which trains slow paced breathing, found improvements across emotional, physical and performance outcomes, with effects varying by the problem being treated. Humming is a low technology way of getting a long, steady out breath. Those trials trained guided breathing with feedback rather than humming, so the overlap is partial.
Lehrer P, Kaur K, Sharma A, Shah K, Huseby R, Bhavsar J, Sgobba P, Zhang Y. (2020). Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Improves Emotional and Physical Health and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis.. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Humming stretches the out breath and adds a vibration you can feel, which gives your attention somewhere easy to rest.
Digestion runs on the resting side of your nervous system, which is one reason long stress and gut trouble travel together so often.
There are implanted devices that send small pulses along the vagus nerve, used for epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and other conditions. Breath practice is a slow, unplugged cousin of the same idea.
Your stress system needs an all clear as much as it needs an alarm. What often breaks after trauma is the signal that says it is over.