Music is satisfying to me. Whether it is a screeching rock opera, a soft ballad, a jazz tune with blazing sax and trumpet jams, a beautiful symphony or a simple song sung by a talented vocalist, I am transported to that place where I am at ease and I get that tingling down my spine. I connect to God through music as well. I am transported to the throne of God through music and when I can hear everyone around me singing, it just brings tears of joy to my eyes. My mom knew this about me at a young age, so she always tried to steer me towards Christian music, so her and my dad made sure that I got to go to a lot of Christian concerts. One such concert that sticks in my mind is a concert that I went to at Lincoln Christian University with the late Rich Mullins. His main song was Awesome God, but that was not what triggered me, it was the rain storm that the audience made before that song. Rich directed the crowd to start with rubbing your fingers in your hand and then moving to a snapping of the fingers to a golf clap and a harder clap to smacking the knees and back to the rubbing of the palms. With a large crowd doing this all together, it sounds like a rain storm and just thinking about it tingles the spine.
Now that I'm a parent, I'm always on the lookout for ways to help my kids connect with God and I found one for my daughter Kylie. She loves to watch ASMR videos on YouTube because they are satisfying to her. This past Christmas, she wanted a microphone that she could use to make her own ASMR videos. That same microphone inspired me to create this podcast, so I had a genius thought of creating an episode of this podcast dedicated to ASMR and how we can use it to help us connect with God better. I have to admit to you that this episode is a true proud parent moment for me and I am so glad that I get to share it with you. I think that we will explore this more in further episodes, but for now, enjoy the satisfying sounds with Kylie.
I learned much from researching ASMR. It is like a lot of things in life, it's all in how you use it. There are some sides of it that I definitely want to steer my kids from and I'm looking at it from the how do I use something my kids are in to the lead them closer to God.
If you would like to see what ASMR is, here are a few resources:
The New York has a good article explaining ASMR and will give you some insight into how it works and why it's in the news, "'Life with Mak' Star Makenna Kelly, 13, Quits YouTube".
I found a very helpful article at ASMR University.
Brain Tingles: The Secret to Triggering Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response for Improved Sleep, Stress Relief, and Head-to-Toe Euphoria by Craig Richard PhD.
ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response - How to Use Sound for Meditation, Relaxation, Pleasure and Better Sleep by Jane Whitaker and Michelle Murillo
Special Guest: Kylie Oyler.
