“Humming combined with breath is a powerful way to release and let go of stuck energy and tension. Great for clearing and refreshing your throat chakra”
Humming is a soothing form of sound medicine, infusing your body with many therapeutic benefits. It’s also an easy and fun way to enjoy a meditation practice.
Imagine filling your head with the vibration of a calming “humm” for one, two or even 5 minutes. It’s bliss.
12 instant benefits of humming:
I’m trusting you’ll be impressed with the following 12 well-being benefits that I have gathered along my journey with humming. Enjoy.
1: Grounds and brings you back to your centre. I personally find it helps settle the feeling of being restless or scattered on the inside.
2: Promotes clarity of thinking by refreshing your mind. You can physically feel the vibration of the “hum” clear out the cob webs.
3: Has a very relaxing and soothing effect on your neck, face, head and shoulder muscles, which helps dissolve stress. Try it, you’ll be surprised.
4: Humming reduces the number of thoughts that fill your head. When you are humming there is little room for over thinking.
5: Humming puts a smile on your face. Well, it certainly does for me.
6: Humming slows down your breathing rate significantly. Dr. Kataria’s research shows, we normally breathe 15-17 times in a minute but with humming you can bring it down to 4-6 a minute which helps to slow down your heart rate and brings down your stress level.
7: Helps dissolve unproductive thinking. If you are having a bout of negativity, jump straight into a few rounds of “hmmmm” and notice a shift in your thinking.
8: Calms your nervous system as it activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
9: Dr. Kataria firmly believes it helps those with insomnia or restless sleep patterns, and perfect for inducing a deep sleep without dreams (the best kind of sleep) .
10: “Humming creates a wonderful circuit of energy in your body re-vitalizing its cells and charging its chakra’s” as quoted by Deva Premal
11: Improves sinusitis. The vibration helps shifts and clears pathways and blockages
12: Lowers blood pressure and as proven by Dr. Kataria, It can also help with fit with weight loss specially when combined with exercise and the Best weight loss pills.
How to practice a simple humming meditation:
1 – Find a quiet place, close your eyes, straighten your spine and neck, drop your shoulders – and relax. Gently touch your lips together so your hum can travel easily into your head, face and neck muscles. Relax your jaw. Play some soft background music to enhance your experience.
2 – Take a deep slow breath in, and then create a “mmm” sound on your exhale, without opening your lips. Continue to hum for the length of your exhale. You can make it musical but traditionally it’s more of a tone than a tune.
3 – Re-new breath then continue. It’s that simple.
Start with 1 minute and increase over time to 15 minutes. One key point which is shared by many yogic and Tibetan wisdoms is the importance of sitting still for a few minutes after your humming meditation.
How to practice a humming bee meditation:
Yogic breathing techniques have a wonderful variation on the above which I guarantee, will deepen your experience with the simple hum. In fact, I’m warning you right now many participants at my Slow Yoga Retreats fall in love with this fun, easy style of meditation.
1 – Start by getting comfortable and relax your breathing. Close your ears with your thumbs and gently rest your fingers over your closed eyes.
2 – Adjust the pressure of your fingers to feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
3 – Gently and deeply inhale, then make a “mmmm” sound for the length of your exhale. Repeat when it naturally feels OK to inhale again.
Covering your ears greatly intensifies and magnifies the sensation of the hum flowing through your head and body.
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I tried this while I was out today (stressful driving conditions, got lost once) and it really works! Thanks, Carole.
Hi Bill,
Humming is so easy and very refreshing for the mind. I’m thrilled you’ve put it too good use.
Blessings
Carole
Carole,
This is a great tip! I like to hum to Enya’s song “Boadicea”. It calms me down, allows me to focus and recharge.
Regards,
Tina
This is a great tip. It helps balance you when you are upset or angry. Thanks for the info. Practice everyday.
About the blood pressure thing…
I already have low blood pressure. Dangerously low.
Is there a way to do this humming exercise without lowering blood pressure?
@Laurie yes, in the past I’ve had low blood pressure so understand completely.
When I’ve felt dizzy doing anything from breathing exercises in yoga, humming meditation or anything else I simply stop and let my blood pressure adjust.
I’m certainly no practitioner though, so if it doesn’t feel right don’t do it. Perhaps humming a tune whilst driving or cleaning the house might be an easier way to enjoy the benefits.
I’ll ask a few of my friends who are practitioners and gather some facts for you.
Blessings
Carole
Thanks for your wonderful and informative piece on humming.It comes at a wonderful time where I am incorporating a daily routine into my activities.
I am sure to make this part of my daily routine. Expect to follow up later as my practice grows. i see nothing but good.
Thanks.
Cameron
Does humming meditation causes irregular heart beat or any kind of effect on heart functioning.
Raju.
I do this! I also do my own style of energy healing in which I use sound to heal the other. I get some very good results with that 🙂
Love
Andrew
Thank you so much for this gift!
I am 41 yrs, have recently got tinnitus and prior to this TMJ problem, tension in the jaw from excessive dental work…will humming help me..without making the tinnitus worse.
Awaiting your response
Hi Sheena,
It would certainly be an interesting exercise to see what difference the humming makes to your tinnitus. I’d imagine it would be similar to singing as you are simply creating sounds in your mouth.
It’s best to do what feels right for you though, and trust your intuition. We are all different and unique.
Peace, love and chocolate
Carole
[…] Humming is a great way to interrupt unhelpful thoughts […]
[…] thoughts. Place one hand on top of your head & the other on your belly. Close your eyes, now hum. Feel the vibration and movement of your hum as it flows from your stomach to your head. Continue […]
Thank you very much for this wonderful gift. be blessed
I have been humming with my meditation for awhile and it is such a wonderful thing. I’ve even notice that I can “aim” the vibrations to a part of my body when that part needs it. I work as a cashier/office worker at a store and on hard concrete floors easily 8 hours a day, whenever I get a chance I sit down and start my meditation and aim for my feet and few mins later my feet start to feel better.
Carole, I couldn’t have written a better blog post on the subject, which I found in preparation for a twenty one day Humming Challenge that I plan to begin on January 24th.
As an expert in the field of ancient healing and transformational music, one of our medically researched elements of this modality – is humming through a long single note. No wrong or right way to do it. No way to make a mistake. The medical results show exactly what you wrote of so beautifully in your article, and more. Keep up your wonderful work!
Hi Eliana, thanks so much for your kind words. Love the idea of your Humming challenge. Let the humming begin.
[…] Hum your favorite song. Humming has all kinds of benefits—it’s soothing, it centers you, and also calms your nervous […]
Wow I hv been humming 4 wks,bt ever since I went 2ru this net I can now hum well,dat means I don’t hum d right way b4;TANX
I have hummed all my life. I am currently 61 and am trying to research humming with relation to frequencies and tone. I have found I hum tones not songs or even parts of a song but just 2 or 3 tones. From high, to low, in random order. I thank you for this blog the your information.
Thanks Kat. So thrilled you found the post helpful. xx Carole
[…] Just found this nice page on humming. Don’t forget though to focus on the feeling for maximum benefit. http://carole.wpengine.com/2009/08/06/12-instant-benefits-of-humming-daily/ […]
It is very interisted and i start hammig & i like it?????
I love humming, it’s really fun. It also helps with my anxiety.
thank you for this information I have fibromyalgia and the pain is hideous atimes I have been humming off and on for the last hour or so and the pain in my knee is much less I will keep this up as painkillers are of no help and I would rather use a natural method I am also hoping it may help my tinnitus bless you x
So happy to hear that’s this beautiful little ritual is helping you Shirley. Much love. xox Carole
Started humming..low…brought me to search…
Vibration
Healing
Humming.
Does it help my inflammation, skin healing?
I think it does!
Found you today. Great explanation,
I live in a National Forest. I am humming. So was the bear I was near. Have you ever seen a bear smile?
Earlier today, I asked- you know, ask with intent to find new ways to assist my body to gentle this pain in my neck and jaws and hip. And several hours ago found you and this article on humming. I had forgotten humming. ahhhh and now remembering in such a good way with your guidance and inspiration. thank you, Carole.
This evening I found myself humming ‘Row, Row row your boat ~ and then inhale after each phrase. I found I was holding the last word and note of each phrase out for a while.. . and as I did my hands would gently float up. I was doing a lovely relaxing free form chi gung. I have heard that this song, the tune is very good for balancing chakras and our whole system with its intervals of 5ths. Ahhhhhh 🙂