ASMR or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response - a form of naturally occurring stimulation that sends signals to the brain and causes it to react in a specific way. ‘Triggers’ for ASMR can be auditory, visual, or tactile or a combination of the three.

When people experience ASMR, they often feel a pleasant tingling sensation that begins in the areas of their head and neck, and that can travel throughout the rest of the body. This relaxing sensation is often referred to as 'brain tingles', a 'brain massage' or “brain orgasm”.

 ASMR can be “triggered” by many things. The sounds (audio) of someone whispering, a cat purring, someone scratching, crinkling paper, tapping and many more. It can also be triggered by visual stimuli of watching these or other things like hair brushing, back scratching, etc. There are also tactile triggers which are usually experienced between two people.. one physically experiencing light touch on the skin, feathers, back scratching, head massage, a number of things can trigger ASMR. Often there are different “tools” incorporated into the experiences or you can just use your hands and fingers. Many people are triggered by all three.

Not everyone experiences ASMR.  The number of people among the general population who are what researchers call "ASMR-capable" is currently unknown. Though research is in its infancy there are many studies being done some of which show that people who experience anxiety and other neuroses may be more likely to experience ASMR. Studies also found that individuals who said they experienced ASMR had higher levels of openness-to-experience, which is associated with curiosity, aesthetic tendencies, wide interests, fantasy, and proneness to vivid daydreams, and scored greater on empathetic concern.

While I don’t fit into all the categories indicated here such as anxiety, I am highly open to new experiences, I do have an active imagination and enjoy fantasizing and daydreaming. I am triggered by all the different ASMR experiences. I personally stumbled upon ASMR in my early youth, though I didn’t have a name for it then and I didn’t ever tell anyone about it because I thought I was experiencing something weird that no one else would understand and I certainly had no real ability to explain it. I always enjoyed tactile ASMR, like back scratching and tickling and the feel of fingernails on my scalp but I also started to experience it through visual and auditory means as well…and I often found myself drifting off into a full on ASMR experience while sitting at my desk in elementary school as a child all the way through my high school years.  I had these experiences of tingles or chills as I locked my gaze on someone’s pencil as it was drawing or writing on their paper for example. I could see the pencil moving on the paper as I also could imagine (occasionally I could hear it but most times not as I was in a classroom setting) the sound that the pencil would be making, very different then a pen for instance, a pen is smooth and pencil has a rougher sound, more friction with the paper. 

 There are many benefits of ASMR some include: relaxation, reduced anxiety, lowered heart rate, improved sleep, eliminating negative thoughts, inducing calm and peace, blissful, tingling throughout the body, stress relief, improved mood, mindfulness, pain relief.

Have you ever had “the tingles” and felt mildly euphoric as a result… you may have experienced ASMR.

When this happens, a series of neurochemicals are released, such as anandamide which is called the ‘bliss’ chemical along with the more well-known neurochemicals like serotonin and dopamine. According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist, the release of these blissful chemicals are linked to an increase in theta wave activity in the brain resulting in a euphoric state similar to flow state or “being in the zone”.  The Theta brain state is where the mind and body’s natural healing state is. 

 If you know you are “ASMR – capable” or you would like to find out if you are, please select one of the sessions that I offer that either includes it as an add-on or a stand-alone experience.