Self-Care Saturday: ASMR
I have always loved to watch people draw pictures. One rainy afternoon when I was teaching, my last class was pretty relaxed and one student was drawing. I walked over and watched for a moment, but realized that was probably annoying (and weird), so when the bell rang, I sat at my computer and looked up drawing videos on YouTube. Thus, I discovered a whole new concept and a whole new community.
ASMR stands for Autonomous-Sensory-Meridian-Response. Essentially, it’s the the tingles or chills you get when you feel very relaxed, especially around your cranium. ASMR can be triggered by visuals (meditative hand motions, tracing, arranging objects), but is often triggered by sounds (tapping, soft-speaking or whispers, scratching, typing, plastic crinkles, etc).
The content-creators in this community call themselves ASMRtists, and the videos they create are both extremely relaxing (great for anxiety, insomnia, and general unwinding), but also informative and quality works of art. They use specific microphones for picking up the nuances of sound in their voices, hands, and objects. Some artists show their faces; many just show their hands. Artists trace letters or pictures, do soft-spoken show-and-tells, unboxings, arranging cards or stones, play with zen gardens, or just play around with soft, intense, relaxing sounds.
For the rest of the year, I spent 20-30 minutes after school watching ASMR videos to reset myself between the end of classes and beginning my grading and planning for the day. It made a world of difference in my mindset and productivity.
I highly recommend ASMR self-care for teachers because it’s free, accessible, and profoundly relaxing (and the content has nothing to do with teaching, so it’s just a good escape). Some of my favorite ASMRtists:
thewaterwhispers
Lynn Cinnamon ASMR
Goodnight Moon ASMR
SouthernASMR Sounds
asmrrequests
ASMRplanet
Jen ASMR Unboxing
Gentle Whispering ASMR
albinwhisperland