This pretty much halved my Anxiety

I know this won’t sound like a big deal, but I still wanted to let you in on the one change I made which lowered my anxiety most while working from home in these last months: NOT sitting.  

To be more precise, I spend at least half of the time that I work standing. The first hour or so I’ll be sitting, because I’m too dizzy in the morning. But after that, I’ll transition to standing for most of the workday.   I don’t even have a real standing desk, I use one of these and put it on my table (I’ve never used the fan feature or the mouse tray. I put my mouse on a spare Amazon box to lift it up:) But I’m considering buying one of those for more flexibility.  

This one change (that little elevation thing cost me around 40$) was a game changer: I think my anxiety is halved when I’m standing. I don’t work well when I’m sitting all the time, especially in the early afternoon when I get super twitchy and nervous (I’ll still be stretching and dancing around from time to time when standing, but it’s much better).  

Maybe I’m an unusual (basket) case and you’re different, but lots research and experts have come out saying that sitting all the time is really bad for our health (they even call sitting “the new smoking”, not sure if that’s a bit too dramatic).

Aside from the obvious back problems and anxiety, it can be linked to all kinds of chronic health issues like heart disease, cancer, diabetes or dementia. I read somewhere else that standing all day isn’t that great either – the crux is that you should change your positionregularly, maybe alternating between sitting and standing every 1 or 2 hours. Even if you can’t really stand in your workplace, try to at least stand up and stretch every half hour or so.

😴 What might help you find calm

Intentional ASMR Picks:

• Lets Find Out‘s long browsing through a really old Astronomy book and his whispered rambles put me to sleep quite well
• I always enjoy Matty Tingle’s positive vibes (even though his videos seem to become like infomercials for his sponsors more and more:). In this video, he makes lunch for you (it’s basically a toast with lots of cheese and canned tomato soup, I had hoped for something a bit fancier to be honest – I still appreciated the effort and personal attention:)
• Anil Çakmak made another beautiful ASMR Barber Shop video. Maybe I’m just missing human touch, but I really enjoyed this. The foam sounds always get me, and the innovative massage props are nice as well

💎 Hidden Gem ASMR Channel: He has one of the best voices in ASMR, in my opinion: Atlas ASMR. He’s at about 2000 subscribers now, but I’m sure he’s gonna be big soon. Check out his recent amazing collab with British “Gentlemen” ASMRtists

Unintentional ASMR Picks:

I made a presenting some of some of my favorite “foreign language” Unintentional ASMR (I challenge you to guess the language:). Here are some examples:

• I loved the evening routine of this elderly Korean lady, Milanonna. Especially her quiet, deliberate way of doing things and her calm narrating voice
• I don’t speak much Spanish but this cooking channel, Recetas de Esbieta, is great nonetheless for ASMR purposes (and for learning new recipes)
• Loved this video of a French-Canadian Sculptor, André Desjardins, about his creation process – it’s beautifully made and inspiring
• Is Russian a good language for ASMR? It definitely can be, and if you don’t believe me, check out this soft spoken demonstration by osteopath Aleksandra Mirklis
• Or how about Greek? The pediatrician Dr. Susanna Kemper gives nice health tips on her channel (and it’s super relaxing, you’ll see) 

If you want more relaxing non-English Unintentional ASMR, check out my narrated compilation, it should be up just now.