My earworm theory

Dear reader,

I don't know how common the term "earworm" is in english. wikipedia reads that it's "a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm". Essentially what it means is that you have a song stuck in your head and you can't get it out no matter what you do. I had one once that lasted for - believe it or not - 1.5 years! I'm hesitant to write here what it is, because it's quite well known. You may find yourself humming the tune yourself, if I told you. And that's NOT a suggestion! I better not write the song.

Anyway, I kept fighting back some earworms lately so it seems quite appropriate to write about earworms, my theory on them and how at least I fight them back. Of course it doesn't mean anything about what works for you.

My theory on earworms is that they're there for a reason. I mean, those specific lines you have stuck in your head at that particular time. It means something. Like with me two sundays ago. I was a bit nervous. There was a course that I signed in for and I wanted to go there. I actually had been there already on saturday. For some reason, I was still shy about going there. When I woke up that sunday, I had a german sailor song in my head. I forgot by now which it was. We sing a lot of old german songs, also sailor songs where I work. It was one of them. The text, if taken not all to literally, meant something along the lines of: "Don't be afraid, love, it'll all be well." It was quite comforting actually. I didn't go from nervous wreck to totally relaxed, but I felt better. Even back then I had the feeling that my unconscious was telling me to relax and everything would be okay. Everything went well after all anyway, as with so many times when we're nervous before a situation.

So what do I do if there is a song stuck in my head and I want to get rid of it? Some time ago I found that "This Is Halloween" from "Nightmare Before Christmas" helps me a lot and very well. I'd just hum this last part where they go "la la...". You should look it up, if you don't know it yet. Usually what happens when I do this is that some lines of that song come to mind and I'd sing or hum it. I think what makes it work is that it's a quite fast song. I don't think I have earworms of fast songs in my head. So probably the change in tempo does it. Whatever it is, this song works very well for me.

Just to sort of "complete" this blog entry with other senses:

What do I do with images I don't want?
If I have an image of something and I don't want it, I literally wave it away. I wave my hand in front of my face twice or three times to the sides as if to shoo away a fly or something. It's always flashes of "mild" stuff. Like if I walk some stairs and suddenly I see myself falling. I don't know if this method would work for me or anybody else with heavy flashbacks of traumatic events.

Negative emotions I want to stop?
I realised after my sister's boyfriend's death that I kept looking down and also had my head down when I was sad. From the nlp eye accessing cues it makes sense: emotions are down. Once I found that out, I looked up very quickly and also moved my head up as if someone suddenly had addressed me and I wanted to look at that person. Lo and behold, I could see my surroundings again and was from the emotions back into the place where I was and could really see it again. It's usually enough to keep my head up consciously for a couple of seconds. Again, this makes sense and goes with the eye accessing cues: looking up is seeing images. The key for me in those moments of grief was not to stop the grief, but to stop the sadness at that moment.

I'll keep you posted! Stay tuned!
sarah

(original post: 26 October 2011)