There is a lot of confusion about the difference between meditation and ASMR. If you are a relaxation enthusiast, then you must know the difference between ASMR and meditation. Let’s go through the basic concept of both.
Meditation
Meditation is all about going beyond the body and mind and involves the deep establishment of the connection with the soul. It helps fight the sadness, headache, anxiety, and insomnia and reduces the chances of depression.
Dr. Madhav Goyal of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine conducted experiments on depression patients.
He observed that both ASMR and meditation produce positive results among the patients and improve the ability to fight stress and confusion.
Meditation is the ancient Eastern practice to reduce depression, connect with internal positive energies and has shown remarkable results. Moreover, it also focuses on avoiding any kind of overthinking about the future.
Meditation always fills your mind with beautiful, soothing, and refreshing ideas, and thus keeps you motivated.
ASMR
ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response which is a pleasant form of paraesthesia and involves the combination of various positive feelings that are triggered by visual or auditory stimuli. Research suggests that ASMR is a physiological response to the stimulus.
According to Kevan Jackson, former operations supervisor for Chevron Refining. (1980-2007)
“Things like ASMR and listening to natural sounds can relax us and reduce stress but they are not meditation”
Want to know more?
The Idiot’s Guide series has one book on ASMR written by Julie Young and Ilse Blansert (aka ASMRtist TheWaterwhispers), published in 2015.
In 2018, Dr. Craig Richard, founder of ASMRUniversity.com, published his book Brain Tingles
Triggers of ASMR
The most effective stimuli that can trigger ASMR include:
- Change in the temperature of the skin
- Listening to a soft voice and whispering music of moving water or ocean.
- Loudly chewing or crunching of gums or foods.
- Moving the hands.
- Receiving personal attention and grooming.
- ASMR eating in which the viewer enjoys watching someone eating food, especially in the form of big bites.
Major Differences Of ASMR And Meditation
- ASMR technique usually involves pleasant sensations and feelings of happiness. While meditation is mostly related to mental peace and satisfaction.
- Meditation is all about controlling the personality using the power of imagination while ASMR involves exposure to specific audio and video in the external environment to soothe and freshen the mind. The ASMR element of outside assistance can be a distraction from going deeper in meditation at some point, but it can be a good place to kick start meditation.
- Meditation is a very broad term that has various applications both from religious as well as security aspects. It is the process in which you can enjoy peace of mind as well as also achieve the goal of enlightenment. ASMR has no such goal of bringing you to the religious side of life. It plays its role by keeping you calm, less stressed, and active.
An example of ASMR is the Japanese YouTuber, Yukino Yumijuku, who has created 112 YouTube videos associated with the phenomenon for her channel “Japanese ASMR”, which includes many traditional Japanese elements such as the Shamisen and Tsuzumi.
Final Thoughts
There are some similarities between ASMR and meditation. For example, both of them improve relaxation, mindfulness, and satisfaction but the major difference is that meditation does not require any outside assistance while ASMR involves outside assistance.
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