How Humming Can Change Your Life, Balance Your Nervous System and Calm Your Mind.

Guest Post written by Eddie Stern

Eddie Stern
June 14, 2022

Today's HOW to LIVE is a guest post by Eddie Stern.

Eddie is a yoga teacher from NYC, currently pursuing a Masters in Science for Yoga Research at the Vivekananda Yoga University.

He runs a Hindu Temple in Soho, NYC where he also teaches Yoga, writes, and engages in scientific research on Yoga.

He lectures at medical, science, and Yoga conferences on the intersection between the spiritual disciplines of Yoga and their evidence based physiological efficacies, and has written protocols for scientific research on Yoga over the past decade.

He's the author of One Simple Thing: A New Look at the Science of Yoga and How It Can Transform Your Life.

While it is true that he met David Bowie backstage at a Madonna concert, he met me first, on the day I was born, and became his little sister.

@eddiestern on Instagram and @eddiestern on Twitter

You can find out more about Eddie, including his class schedule, on his website.

I hope you enjoy my brother's piece on humming!!

PATTERNS

On a very fundamental level, our lives are made up of patterns. Some of them are ingrained in our nervous systems, such as the wake-and-sleep cycles, our digestive cycles, as well as our physiological patterns, e.g., how often we breathe, the speed of our heart rate, and the cycles of work and rest that our internal organs follow. We also have behavioral patterns: how we respond to stress or praise, how we perceive situations occurring in the world and respond or act accordingly.

Our patterns, including our physiological patterns, can be altered. They can be thrown off from a baseline of what we might identify as balance, and they can also be brought back into balance with a little bit of work. If we are tremendously thrown off, it can take work, but it can be done, especially with a bit of consistency, support, and resolve.

As you'll see soon, humming is one way to restore ourselves to balance.

Getty Images | South_agency

SIGHING

Over the past few decades, I’ve been fascinated by the different patterns that make up our respiratory and physiological systems—particularly our breath, which is the only pattern that we have a conscious control over.

When we change our breathing patterns, it can impact our body functions, emotions, and cognitive abilities. Take, for example, the sigh: We do that automatically throughout the day so the body can reinflate the tiny air sacs of the lungs that periodically collapse (it’s normal, don’t worry), but we also do it when we are feeling down, or when we need to release some stress.

The breath is therefore both an expression of our inner state and something that we can use to change our inner state. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Svātmārāma, and other texts on yoga, the functions of the mind, and those which drive the breath, are considered one and the same. Breath and mind, mind and breath, are one in the same.

When you control or modify one, you can control the other. If you lose control of one, you lose control over the other.

BREATHING

We all know this to be true because when we have someone in front of us who is visibly upset, or freaking out—the first thing we tell them to do is breathe, by which we mean, slow down your breath, which has the effect of calming your body.

We learned this from the ancient Yogis—and while this might have seemed obvious to some, what was revelatory was the different practices they shared that heightened the inherent power of breath to lead to deep states of calm, clarity, and expanded awareness.

There is a fabulously complex substance created by our body, primarily in the paranasal sinuses, as well as the empty cavities of the head, just behind your nose, in the cheekbones, and forehead, which helps prepare the body to deal with hardship, called nitric oxide (NO).

It is a mild bronchodilator, which means it expands the breathing tubes (which can spasm in times of stress), an immunomodulator that increases or decreases inflammation levels in the body to fight off disease, as well as being an antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial.

With humming we can say something without having to use words, and the person we are speaking to will get the idea.

Over the past few decades, the pathogen fighting properties of nitric oxide have been discovered, as well as its healing capacities. The nitric oxide created in the nasal cavities is one of our frontlines of defense for incoming pathogens, and we need antivirals, antifungals, and antibacterials present to filter out and kill off harmful invaders like COVID-19 before they can either settle deep into the lung tissue or directly attack the brain through the olfactory nerves.

Eddie Stern on Instagram: "The pranayama series continues"

236 Likes, 8 Comments - Eddie Stern (@eddiestern) on Instagram: "The pranayama series continues"

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHJ-ckBpYtP/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1fb169a0-04e3-4fd4-bc94-0beddb9897e4

HUMMING

If periodically increasing nitric oxide is desirable, nature has provided a clear pathway: humming, which has been shown to generate nitric oxide in the nasal cavities by increasing the speed of the airflow in the paranasal sinuses.

Humming is a natural phenomenon that occurs spontaneously in human beings. We hum when we are thinking, or happy, or taste something delicious, or agreeing or disagreeing as a non-language-based mode of communication. We hum wordless melodies or along with our favorite songs.

Children hum when they are happy and playing. Humming also keeps us company when we are alone. It is also a non-verbal signifier: we can convey a positive or negative, a non-committal, agreeable or non-agreeable feeling through a hum. With humming we can say something without having to use words, and the person we are speaking to will get the idea.

Nature is not capricious, so if humans bear an innate capacity for doing something in a particular way, it must exist for a purpose. And not only does humming serve to help us express ourselves; it also has some amazing health benefits.

PRACTICE

Eddie practicing breathing. Original art for How to Live is by Edwina White

I practice humming as a breathing practice almost every day.

It is an ancient Yogic breathing practice, called Bhramari.

Here’s how you can try it:

Inhale comfortably through your nose, and as you exhale through your nose, allow yourself to hum as if you’re feeling really satisfied or happy.

2. Repeat once.

3. Is your sound high or low-pitched? If it’s low-pitched, make it a little higher. If you were very high-pitched, lower the tone slightly so you aren’t straining your hum.

Next, we’ll make it a little more subtle and meditative.

4. Inhale high into the nasal cavity as though you are taking in a scent from across the room, any smell that you love, the first that comes to mind: the scent of a rose, or of brownies or bread baking in the oven, or perhaps the salty scent of the sea.

5. As you breathe in high into the nasal cavity, savor the imaginary (or real) smell, so that your breath lengthens. When you exhale, keep your awareness near your sense of smell.

6. Repeat a few times, then move on to the combination of these two practices.

Here’s the final practice:

7. Breathe high into the nasal cavity, savoring your breath like your favorite song, and then …

8. As you exhale, make a humming sound at whatever natural pitch comes out of your nose, and as you make the humming sound, keep your awareness focused near the sense of smell.

9. Repeat three to five times. When you feel you’ve done enough, sit quietly and observe your state of mind, body, and nervous system.

Eddie Stern on Instagram: "This is a clip from the end of a longer video done for @theapollohospitals and @urlife.co.in led by @upasanakaminenikonidela based on research done with Dr. William Bushell and others. In an earlier post I shared some interesting information on Bhramari pranayama and how humming generates larger quantities of Nitric Oxide is the paranasal sinuses. NO is an amazing substance produced by the body: it is an anti microbial, anti viral, immune modulator, broncho dilator and has contributed to the ability for bipedal beings to remain upright (us). In this post I’ll add in a few things about Shanmukhi Mudra, which is demonstrated here. There are interesting vagal nerve connections stimulated in Shanmukhi Mudra: at the ears, corner of the eyes, and corners of the mouth (areas innervated by the trigeminal nerve). While the vagus nerve does not directly reach these areas, according to Dr. Stephen Porges and others (including Darwin) the vagus nerve nuclei are communicating with these areas via other nerve pathways. These areas are associated with pro-social engagement through identifying change in facial expressions and vocal tone (through hearing) that allow us to interpret what people are expressing. When we look at social and emotional well-being an intelligence, the ability to recognize signals are absolutely integral. So along with the nervous system and immune system benefits of Bhramari and Shanmukhi Mudra, there are also social benefits as well. This video can be seen in full on the @urlife.co.in website."

841 Likes, 26 Comments - Eddie Stern (@eddiestern) on Instagram: "This is a clip from the end of a longer video done for @theapollohospitals and @urlife.co.in led by @upasanakaminenikonidela based on research done with Dr. William Bushell and others. In an earlier post I shared some interesting information on Bhramari pranayama and how humming generates larger quantities of Nitric Oxide is the paranasal sinuses. NO is an amazing substance produced by the body: it is an anti microbial, anti viral, immune modulator, broncho dilator and has contributed to the ability for bipedal beings to remain upright (us). In this post I’ll add in a few things about Shanmukhi Mudra, which is demonstrated here. There are interesting vagal nerve connections stimulated in Shanmukhi Mudra: at the ears, corner of the eyes, and corners of the mouth (areas innervated by the trigeminal nerve). While the vagus nerve does not directly reach these areas, according to Dr. Stephen Porges and others (including Darwin) the vagus nerve nuclei are communicating with these areas via other nerve pathways. These areas are associated with pro-social engagement through identifying change in facial expressions and vocal tone (through hearing) that allow us to interpret what people are expressing. When we look at social and emotional well-being an intelligence, the ability to recognize signals are absolutely integral. So along with the nervous system and immune system benefits of Bhramari and Shanmukhi Mudra, there are also social benefits as well. This video can be seen in full on the @urlife.co.in website."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRBngC2JGlA/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=9e77c5ca-8834-4abd-957c-8b50768dd0f5

THE VAGUS NERVE

If you feel even slightly calmer or centered after doing just a few humming breaths then that’s awesome, you’re doing it right. The reason it works is due to a complex interplay of interactions the vibration of the sound is sending through your autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system has two primary branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic. They control and oversee all the operations of things that keep us living so we don’t have to think about them—breathing is one of the key ones. The vagal nerve complex, commonly called the vagus nerve, makes up 80% of the parasympathetic nervous system.

This nerve complex is one of the most far reaching of the nerves that extend from our brains, sending information down to our bodies, and, importantly, receiving signals from our internal organs about the state of our body. Extended exhalations, such as those produced by humming, strengthen the vagal brake, which slows the heartbeat and creates a feeling of calm and internal coherence.

The ability to tune into the signals our body is sending is one of the key purposes of a spiritual, contemplative, or meditative discipline, but it’s also a basic function of being human. Many of us have become cut off from what we are feeling in our bodies and could use some help in getting back in touch with those feelings—slowing down is a very important part of that process.

SLOWING DOWN

The humming practice is a very effective means of slowing ourselves down, which includes our minds, our breath—and with it our nervous system—and our bodies. You can try this practice several times throughout the day. If you do a few rounds after you wake up in the morning it can help set you up before you start your day; a few rounds at night and it can help wind you down before you go to sleep.

There are no contraindications for it.

Just stop if you feel that you are getting tired or strained. Usually five to ten rounds are enough, but you can do up to 27.

For some reason this practice drives dogs nuts, but cats don’t seem to mind it.

Go figure.