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Hum to Heal a Dysregulated Nervous System · WholeHeart Conversations

• 0:00
  Constance Lavonice: Today, I want to discuss mental health.
• 0:04
  Constance Lavonice: Sometimes in life, because of circumstances and situations, many outside of our control, we become stuck in a state of heightened alertness.
• 0:19
  Constance Lavonice: We're scanning our environment for dangers, whether real or imagined, physical or emotional.
• 0:29
  Constance Lavonice: It's called hypervigilance.
• 0:32
  Constance Lavonice: Being vigilant is a way that our nervous system orients itself to protect us from danger, but hypervigilance is when it goes into overdrive.
• 0:46
  Constance Lavonice: Our nervous system is in a continual state of fight or flight.
• 0:54
  Constance Lavonice: And often we don't recognize this process, but we see the results: mental fatigue, physical exhaustion, anger, irritability, anxiety, worry, and always feeling on the edge.
• 1:15
  Constance Lavonice: Humming is a simple strategy that can calm and heal our nervous system.
• 1:26
  Constance Lavonice: Welcome to Whole Heart Conversations.
• 1:31
  Constance Lavonice: And if you are new here, this is a podcast for women discussing biblical faith, mental health, and whole heart, spirit, soul, and body resilience.
• 1:44
  Constance Lavonice: I'm your host, Constance Lavonice.
• 1:48
  Constance Lavonice: Many things can cause us to become hyper-vigilant.
• 1:52
  Constance Lavonice: One common reason for hyper-vigilance is trauma.
• 1:57
  Constance Lavonice: And trauma, I like to say, is anything that overwhelms your ability to cope at that time.
• 2:07
  Constance Lavonice: It can be emotional, the death of a loved one, a divorce, separation, abandonment, betrayal, or it can be physical, a car accident, a natural disaster, being in a tornado, a fire destroying your home, a victim of violence or witnessing violence, going to war or being in a combat situation, a medical diagnosis, hospitalization, or medical procedures, these are some of the things that I can think of at the moment.
• 2:57
  Constance Lavonice: Trauma disrupts the nervous system.
• 3:01
  Constance Lavonice: It's not just mental.
• 3:03
  Constance Lavonice: A lot of times people think that when you go through something emotionally or physically overwhelming or a trauma that is mental only.
• 3:15
  Constance Lavonice: But trauma is stored in the nervous system through the senses.
• 3:22
  Constance Lavonice: Everything we see, smell, taste, touch, and hear, along with the thoughts and the feelings that we had at that time, those experiences become stuck in your body in a state of fight or flight.
• 3:44
  Constance Lavonice: And because it's stuck there, it gets triggered over and over again, unconsciously, whenever a reminder comes up.
• 3:55
  Constance Lavonice: That reminder can be a particular sound, a sight, anything that has to do with your senses, a feeling or a thought that creeps in.
• 4:11
  Constance Lavonice: These unconscious reminders or triggers can be the source of hypervigilance and negative emotions like anger, irritability, depression, and anxiety.
• 4:26
  Constance Lavonice: And the first step of healing is calmness to create a sense of safety, internal safety, a felt sense of safety, to send a message to the brain that you're okay in the present.
• 4:47
  Constance Lavonice: And singing or humming when a quiet voice is more appropriate is a convenient and simple way to create that calm.
• 5:01
  Constance Lavonice: Singing calms the body and stimulates a relaxation response through the vagus nerve.
• 5:10
  Constance Lavonice: And I talked about this last week.
• 5:13
  Constance Lavonice: The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body, running from the base of the brain, the brain stem, all the way down to our abdomen.
• 5:24
  Constance Lavonice: And it's also located on both sides of our neck.
• 5:29
  Constance Lavonice: The vagus nerve sends messages to and from the brain.
• 5:37
  Constance Lavonice: So when we're overwhelmed with mental fatigue, worry, and anxiety, it starts to shut down the thinking, rational, connecting the dots, logical part of the brain.
• 5:53
  Constance Lavonice: Romans 12 2 encourages us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, but it's difficult to focus on our thought processes when our nervous system is in fight or flight mode and shutting it down.
• 6:15
  Constance Lavonice: So in these cases, it's helpful to start with the body, to send a message to the brain to calm down.
• 6:29
  Constance Lavonice: And we do that when we sing or hum when a quiet voice is appropriate.
• 6:37
  Constance Lavonice: And in our episode last week, we talked about the therapeutic benefits of singing.
• 6:46
  Constance Lavonice: The vocal cords and the back of the throat are connected to the vagus nerve, and humming activates it and triggers a relaxation response.
• 6:59
  Constance Lavonice: So the first step in the healing process is calming the body, shutting down the stress response, sending a message to the brain that you're okay, you're safe in the present.
• 7:19
  Constance Lavonice: Now, we no longer need to live in the fear of the past.
• 7:27
  Constance Lavonice: You're free to live in the present.
• 7:31
  Constance Lavonice: And if you recognize that hypervigilance, anxiety, or just feeling like you're constantly on the edge, help is available.
• 7:45
  Constance Lavonice: If you are in the United States and live in the states of Tennessee, Georgia, or Florida, you can contact Wholeheart Women's Christian Counseling for professional counseling, or there are many online resources for finding therapists in your area.
• 8:08
  Constance Lavonice: Psychology today is an international resource online.
• 8:13
  Constance Lavonice: Psalm 42.8 says, The Lord will send his goodness in the daytime, and his song will be with me in the night.
• 8:26
  Constance Lavonice: A prayer to the God of my life.
• 8:29
  Constance Lavonice: If this message resonated with you, please subscribe and share it with a friend and take some time today or this week and practice humming a familiar tune.
• 8:44
  Constance Lavonice: And then text the show and let me know if you were able to feel a sense of calm afterwards.
• 8:52
  Constance Lavonice: And Father God, I pray for each woman listening that she will be able to just stop, breathe, and take a moment to hum or sing a familiar verse so that peace and calm will wash over her mind and body in Christ Jesus.
• 9:17
  Constance Lavonice: Amen.