Humming and Healing: The Surprising Power of Sound to Support You and Your Animals

Discover how a simple humming practice can transform your connection with animals by regulating your nervous system, reducing tension, and communicating safety through presence rather than actions. 

Resources:
💥Learn how the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

Grab your FREE video training to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

Want to help your dog move more easily and feel their best—at any age? Join the waitlist for my upcoming program, Easier Movement, Happier Dogs, and be the first to know when doors open. Spaces are limited. 

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

Want to sit in a more balanced, secure way? Click here for all the details on our new series.
Effortless, Balanced Sitting: A FeldenkraisⓇ Movement Series  ⬅️⬅️⬅️

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice or professional training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or your dog are unwell or injured.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the performance, well-being, and partnership of animals and their humans.

Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for horse and dog enthusiasts.  Her methods have helped animals and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the human-animal bond

Mary's flagship online programs, "Move with Your Horse" and "Easier Movement, Happier Dogs," provide animal enthusiasts with an innovative approach that combines the concepts of Feldenkrais® with her signature hands-on work for horses and dogs. Through this transformative method, both people and their animal companions discover greater harmony, ease, and connection.

As a sought-after speaker and educator, Mary has impacted animal enthusiasts worldwide, guiding them to enhance their relationships with their animals through mindful movement and deeper body awareness. Her work empowers individuals to unlock new levels of understanding and communication with their beloved companions.

Visit https://www.marydebono.com to learn more about Mary's unique work

Transcript

What do humming and breathing have to do with keeping your animal safe and connected? Well, a lot more than you think. You see, breathing isn't just a survival function. It's a powerful way that we communicate safety, calm, and presence. And when you add a sound, just a soft, you can shift your internal state in a way that your horse, your dog, or your cat can feel, and they'll respond to it.

So in this episode, I'll guide you through a simple practice using sound and gentle awareness to help you regulate your nervous system, soften your tension, and show up with a presence that invites trust and ease with your animal. So let's get started. Oh, and in case we're meeting for the first time, my name is Mary Debono, and this is the Easier Movement, Happier Life podcast. And it's for you, your horses and your dogs, and actually all animals.

We just couldn't fit that all on the title, you know, so, you know, when we think about how we communicate and connect with our animals, we often think that it's something that we have to do, like how we use our hands, how we use our voice, how we use our. Our body. But, you know, our animals are tuning into something much deeper, and that's our internal state. So when you.

When you breathe in a smooth, slow, and regulated way, your nervous system is more balanced. And when you feel safe and connected, your animal often does as well. So sound is one of the really great ways to affect your nervous system, and it's like a very direct effect on the nervous system. And today, we'll explore just one simple sound. It's a soft hum that can bring you a sense of calm grounding and connection.

So let's start with the hum. You could think of the M sound as like the sound you might make when you're about to taste something delicious or you just tasted something delicious. You know, it's that, like, this is so yummy sound, and it creates a vibration through your chest, your face, and even your skull. And that gentle vibration engages areas of the body connected to the vagus nerve, like the throat, the.

The chest, and the face. And while the evidence, the science is still evolving on this, research does suggest that humming, especially when paired with slow breathing, may help regulate your parasympathetic activity and invite a more relaxed, regulated state. So it's deeply regulating. You know, doing this humming is very helpful to your nervous system. It can really calm things down. So you might use this sound when you feel disconnected or scattered.

You want to ground yourself or you want to prepare to be emotionally present with your animal because a lot of times we're physically present, but we're not really present. And it's that presence that they crave and that allows us to benefit them and allows them to benefit us. Right. If we're, if we're scattered, right. We're not getting the, the benefits of our connection with our animal either. And you know, you'll notice too that when you change your internal state, your animal often responds without you doing or saying anything else.

Just changing your state can be incredibly powerful and so helpful for your animal. So when you think about doing this M sound, do it with an intention to gently lengthen your exhalation. And having your exhalation be even just a few seconds longer than your inhalation signals your nervous system to relax without forcing anything. It's just a simple, often just automatic process, right? So, and you know, if you'd like, you can add something to this.

I'm going to take you through a very short little exercise with this. But I'll invite you to, you know, gently rest your attention on your heart area as you hum. And that simple inward focus on your heart combined with the sound that we're doing, gonna do and your lengthening of your exhalation can help deepen the sense of calm and connection. So it's kind of like, like a three pronged approach, if you will.

And if it feels right to you, I'm gonna invite you to do something else. And that's, you know, think about something that you're grateful for and maybe that's the animal that, that you, you want to work with, right? That you want to help your horse, your dog, your cat, or just some moment, it doesn't even have to be an animal that's physically with you, just some moment that you were really grateful for.

So if you can call that up that, you know, and it could be again, a memory of connection, of softness, or just simply gratitude for your current animal's presence in your life, but something you're thankful for. And you know, a lot of research, research has shown that embracing and embodying this feeling of gratitude, this state of gratitude can help in so many ways, both physiologically, you know, cognitively, all kinds of ways.

It improves your heart rate variability and, and it has a lot of wonderful, you know, benefits and in including it can enhance your heart brain coherence and support your overall well being. So it puts you in a really good state to work with your animal. Okay, so let's try this little mini practice. Now if you're Driving or doing something active. Please wait and do this at a time when you can just focus on this.

Okay, you can come back to this. But if you're somewhere where you can pause for a few minutes, just go ahead and settle in, Find a comfortable position and just take a moment and feel the surface beneath you. So if you're sitting in a chair, notice that if you're standing up, notice how your feet connect with the ground. Let your shoulders relax. Notice your breath without changing anything.

And this isn't about judging whether you're tight or not tight, breathing correctly or not, which there's no such thing by the way. Just notice. Just notice. And let go of any unnecessary tension. And now, just as you're breathing normally, on your next exhale, gently hum. No M. Feel the vibration. Let it, let it settle you. So feel that vibration? Go ahead and do that again. Is that a nice vibration?

So then inhale naturally. And when you exhale again, you exhale with a. So one more time, inhale. And now I'll give it to you. Exhale with the. Keep going, keep going. I have to talk, so I can't keep doing it, but keep going with the humming sound. Okay? And now simply rest. Simply rest. And just let your breath be soft and easy. And notice if your body is softer, do you feel more grounded?

So this is just something super simple, doesn't take much time at all. And it can really help shift your state and help you reduce the tension and stress in your life and help you be more present and connected with your animals. So this practice may seem like really simple and small, but it can have a big, big impact. And remember, the work that we do here in the De Bono moves approach is not about correcting, trying to fix your animal or yourself for that matter, but it's how you show up, you know, in your body, your breathing, your awareness.

So the more you cultivate that, the more an effective partner you can be for your animal and the better your own life will be as well. And from there, your connections deepen naturally. When you're more present with your animal, you'll feel more your sense more, and they will be naturally more drawn to connecting with you. And so you could return to this breath practice anytime. Maybe before you're going to do any of the hands on De Bono moves work or you know, just want to reset your own system, it's such a wonderful thing to do.

Maybe before going out for a walk with your dog or before you prepare your horse to be tacked up and ridden, you take a moment and do this or you can do it from the saddle as well. You know, just just be attentive of course to your surroundings. But yeah, so I'd love to hear how this goes for you that want you notice from doing this little simple practice that can be be so profound.

So feel free to either send me a text, which you can do through the podcast app, or email me maryarydebono.com so thank you so much for listening. I really enjoy sharing these things with you and I look forward to talking to you again soon. Bye for now.