Do you know the ASMR community?

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The ASMR Community Introduction

Today I would like to introduce you to something that’s very special and important to me and thousands if not millions of others. Many of you might have heard or know about this quickly growing community already and if not then I’m very honored to have the privilege to introduce this to you. This story that you’re about to read is written from my perspective and based on my own research and experiences.

How did I found ASMR?

In 2011 I was in my final year of the animal care study that I did at the time and there were several projects that I had to work on. Times were stressful and I suffered from sleepless nights so much that it started to effect my overall health, work sufficiency and communication with others. I was determent to find a solutions for the stress and sleepless nights that I’ve experienced for several months but didn’t know where to start. I listened to all my meditation CD’s and knew them by heart, sleeping pills weren’t effective anymore and according to the doctor I didn’t have a sleeping disorder. That’s when I realized that I had to look for different methods that would be able to help me.

During my search to find a cure for my sleepless nights and high stress levels I went back to my childhood memories. I discovered pretty quickly that I’ve always had trouble sleeping but there was only one thing that seem to work every single time. It was Bob Ross the painter….

I was introduced to Bob Ross at the age of 5 in 1993. I spend every Sunday with my grandparents and I got very upset when I wasn’t able to watch Bob’s painting episodes.

All I knew at the time was that his voice and the beautiful sounds of the brushes on canvas gave me a relaxing feeling. It felt like a warm energy rush that entered my body as soon as the show got started and it made my eyes very heavy.

At night I experienced the same sensation again when it was bedtime and my grandma started singing me Dutch lullabies while stroking my hands very softly. You might be able to imagine that Sundays were like a little gift to me at the time.

Breakthrough

This memory really made me think and let me one step closer to the cure of my sleepless nights and high stress levels. Now I knew that Bob Ross triggered something in me and that my grandma was capable of triggering that same thing which helped me to relax and sleep. I started to look for relaxing voices on the internet and I ended up on YouTube. First I found some short videos of Bob Ross and then I found another video where a women was talking very softly to the viewer (me) and she was giving me a relaxing day at a Spa.

There it was again! That warm relaxing feeling which I would recognize out of thousands and it took me over for several minutes. After I ‘woke up’ I realized that the title of the video had a strange word in it. ASMR? I never heard of that word so I looked it up on Google and this is what I discovered on the ASMR research group website.

ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It is a physical sensation characterized by a pleasurable tingling that typically begins in the head and scalp, and often moves down the spine and through the limbs.

After reading the definition of ASMR I couldn’t believe it. That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling for decades and there are other people who feel this sensation too! I was so happy and relieved that I finally found a way to relax and sleep and there I was, thinking that I was the only one for years while there were people on YouTube who made videos dedicated to this ASMR feeling just for people like me. After this discovery I watched ASMR video every night and didn’t have sleepless nights anymore. I got less stressed and I got my diploma for Animal care.

To keep this at a proper length I decided to split it up in different parts. I can write a whole book about this if I wanted to but for now, the next part of this article will follow soon and then I will talk about what the ASMR community is.

 

Ilse Blansert
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