Last night I had a bad panic attack and was having a hard time calming myself down. My brain was churning out thoughts at a speed of about 400 km/ph (at least that’s what it felt like)

Laying in bed at 1 a.m. I am hyperventilating and absolutely helpless. I want to stop worrying but I just can’t, it’s like I’ve lost control over my mind. It’s not that I am worrying about one specific thing, instead my brain is attacking me from different directions by throwing countless intrusive thoughts all at once to overwhelm me.

I tried deep breathing which reduced my hyperventilation to some extent but my mind was still spiraling. I haven’t had a panic attack this bad for quite some time so I was kind of unprepared to deal with this.

I literally google my way through life. From checking spellings and meanings to cooking, google has always been a helpful friend. Naturally I decided to turn to it for help

I skimmed through a bunch of websites which showed the same generic techniques that apparently calms mind. These techniques were like, ‘just breathe’ or something like ‘take a warm bath’. The thing is it’s 1 a.m. I am tired and can barely move but even if I did decide to take a warm bath it would wake my family so it didn’t seem practical.

That’s when I discovered these three techniques that helped me calm down and eventually sleep. Let me tell one thing, these things worked for me but it may not work for everyone. You can try them and if it works for you great! I am happy I could help but if it doesn’t then keep looking for the one that helps you (also mention your personal techniques down in the comments so that it helps someone who needs it)

ASMR. Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response(ASMR) is a relaxing and tingly sensation that you feel on your scalp or the back of your neck (that’s where I feel) when you listen to certain sounds like tapping, crinkling of paper etc. This technique works like magic. I mean it just triggers all of the right nerves and helps to instantly calm down the mind. There are a lot of asmr videos on YouTube, try different videos and find out what suits you the best.

Aesthetic / A Simple day in my life vlogs. These are not those vlogs where the youtuber wakes up and jumps into action. No no no, instead these are slower paced vlogs where usually the youtuber never talks but casually goes about their normal day. The reason I find these videos so relaxing is because it reflects the simplicity of life. Since the narrator isn’t talking you start focusing on the background sounds, like the chirping of the birds or the sound of vegetables being cut against a cutting pad, it just shows that life doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated to be happy. I have watched Japanese and Korean vlogs they are really calm and aesthetic.

Last but not the least

Spotify. For me listening to music has always been a therapeutic experience. While traveling to and fro from college in a crowded bus, music has always been my savior. So here I am not talking about songs, I am talking about instrumental music. I feel when we listen to songs our brain puts in extra effort to understand and retain the lyrics, but when we are trying to calm our minds our brain which is already overwhelmed with thoughts should have minimal job to do. These instrumental music just flows throughout your body and it really calms down the restless mind.

So these are the three things that helped me sleep peacefully last night. To be honest I thought I’d stay awake the the whole night, because even closing my eyelids felt like a chore at one point, but eventually I did get a good night’s sleep and that’s what matters.