Goodnight Moon

Categories: Blog Oct 26, 2014

When my son Luke was a newborn, I would rock him to sleep at night. Sometimes, if he was a bit agitated, I'd also hum or sing to him when I rocked him. Rocking and humming seemed to really soothe him. It also seemed to soothe me, as well.

There is something calming and soothing about rocking and humming, or rocking and "gentle" music. Alone, either of them can calm an agitated child or adult. Together, they combine to make one powerful emotional reset. 

Sometimes, we need an emotional reset. Sometimes we simply need emotional rest. 

Rocking and soothing humming are resets that have been pre-programmed into our original operating system. We default to them by intuition as a loving parent. We also default to them unknowingly as a raging child or adult.

No one ever taught me how to hum and rock my child to calm him and settle him. It was instinctive. Sure, my mom may have done it to me, but I wasn't taking notes at the time, and no one taught my mom to do it either. We simply "know" how to rock, sway, sing and hum to calm our children. 

Have you ever seen an out of control child soothe himself? What does he do? He rocks - back and forth. Sometimes, he may even mutter, or hum. 

Have you ever seen a terrified person try to console themselves? What do they do? They often rock.

What about a raging adult, someone so mad they simply want to fight? What do they do? Sometimes they sway, or pace repeatedly in a very short distance back and forth. This is kind of like a standing, rocking motion. Why do they do this? It helps calm them, or soothe them.

Ever hear anyone sigh? Or say, "hmmmmm"? This is often done when the mind is restless, or bad news comes about, or when a person is trying to think. A sigh, or a "hmmmm" is a simple, short hum. 

Life is full of stressful situations. There are always events, real or imagined, that raise our emotions to states of uneasiness. Sometimes, we need an emotional reset, an emotional rest, to calm, soothe, and settle our minds, which in turn settles our bodies. 

The body, your body, was meant to be healthy and strong. Part of being healthy and strong means having a "peace" in your mind - it means being able to mitigate and diffuse stresses that try to overtake us. Stresses create fears and fears operate just like pain, as far as your nervous system is concerned. Both pain and fear both rob you of your mobility, your strength and your health. They put the brakes on your body and mind. 

Rocking and humming are two engrained resets within us. They can be a very effective and powerful way to help us relax a bit and mitigate stress as it tries to overtake us. They can help restore us. If you are anti-humming, rocking and listening to soothing sounds/music can also be a very effective reset, but there seems to be a little more power when we actually create the soothing sound ourselves and it reverberates in and from our own heads. 

The next time you get stressed, try getting down on the floor and rocking while you hum. If you already rock every day, try adding in some humming along with your rocking session. You might find that you feel more refreshed and relaxed.

Remember, you were designed perfectly. Almost everything you need to live a vibrant life is hidden inside of you, inside of your original operating system.  Yes rocking and humming is silly, but so is crawling to build strength, and yet it works wonderfully well! Press reset - every day. 

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