How to Silently Change How You Feel... Now

This Week You'll Hear Good News, Bad News, and Everything in Between. This Can Change How You Respond

During these ever-changing political times, life can often seem like it’s been turned upside down and inside out. There’s a lot going on, and millions of people are experiencing stress to a degree that they may have never imagined. Sometimes we must work a little harder to notice the “good” things in our lives. Really hard.

Fall is a special time of the year for me. There’s just something about it that finds me relaxing a bit more, and slowing my life down a notch, just to allow my senses to really soak it all up.

As a matter of fact, this Friday I had my first pumpkin spice latte. I’m usually a black coffee kind of guy. But, like I said, I like all things “Fall.”

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to go to a nearby State Park, all alone…and hike through the woods, making sure to make my way down to the river that flows right up against the east edge of the Department of Conservation managed land.

I always tell people, “I go for the quiet, so I can hear the symphony.”

There’s no MSNBC news in the background. No SiriusXM Ozzy’s Boneyard. No other human beings talking amongst themselves.

 In short, there are no man-made sounds to interfere with my being able to hear the mellifluous songs being sung by the Redheaded Woodpeckers. Nothing to drown out the delicate “ta-da, ta-da, ta-da, ta-da” of a squirrel’s tiny, padded feet… running down a length of a long stout Pin Oak branch, some forty feet above my head.

To have all these vibrations created in the air…and being fortunate enough to have some of them travel down my ear canal, reaching the auditory neural pathways in my brain, provides a magnificent experience that I just can’t seem to get enough of. I literally feel the sounds of nature.

There’s a good reason for why these sounds of nature make me feel so good. The auditory cortex of the brain overlaps some 30-40% with the cortex that processes sensations. Thus, a comfortable sound can make us feel... comfortable. This fact forms the foundation of today’s Jack Hopkins Now newsletter.

What takes place inside of our own head plays a big role in the intensity of the feelings we experience. So much so, that in many cases, we can turn the thought of something that makes us feel up tight and edgy, into something that might even trigger a relaxation response; one that can be quantified by an observable reduction in our blood pressure and heart rate.

I’ll share how to do that with you. (It’s probably not what you’re thinking)

First, I’d like to have you do something. (If you’re not someplace, right now, where you want to do this, please do so, later, when you are alone.)

Just take in a deep breath through your nose, and, then....as you are exhaling.... let out a wonderfully soothing, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Now, having completed that, notice the release of tension in your body and mind, and the increased level of relaxation. Just be aware of it for a moment.

If you’re like most people, you probably think the relaxation you’re experiencing is the result of the deep inhalation of breath, followed by the long, slow exhale. And... you’re right. That IS part of what went on.

However, there was also something else happening inside your brain that was making a significant contribution. Allow me to demonstrate.

In a moment, I want you to do something...but this time...only doing it inside of your mind. Do it in a way that even if someone was sitting right next to you, they would hear nothing any different coming from you.

I’d like for you to do a nice long, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” and only on the inside.

Once you have done so, you should notice that you experienced exactly what you felt when you had done it audibly “out loud.” There’s a reason for that.

 The neural pathways to the auditory cortex of our brain, that we use to process the sounds we generate with our own vocal cords (that we process through our ear canals and bone conduction) are the same neural pathways that are used when we imagine a sound inside of our head.

That means, that, to our brain, there’s little-to no-difference between a sound that is external, and one that is only internal. It also means something else.

As you will recall, the auditory and kinesthetic (feelings/tactile) cortex overlap by about forty percent. This means that sounds...and feelings...really aren’t all that different, and that one, activates something significant...in the other.

Let’s break it down into common lingo. Here’s what it means. It means if a woman walks up to a chalk board, raises her hand and then slowly rakes her nails down this chalk board...now....and you hear that long, high pitch grating, “eeeeeeeeeeecccccccckkkkiiiiiissssshhhheeee” that you will experience.....

You will experience what you almost certainly just did experience as you read my words.

Most people mimicked the sound I described inside their mind while they were reading those words. As a result, they had a repulsive visceral feeling that made them cringe. That happened for most of the people who read it, because:

1. Sounds and feelings really aren’t that much different.

2. The human brain treats imagined sounds just like it treats external sounds.

Do you know what this means? Do you?