🔼: # Earworms A repeating 15-20 second snippet of music playing in your head without you consciously making it happen. ## Working with Earworms - [[💡 Stress#Reduce Stress|Reduce Stress]] - [Directly tune into the song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3VmchdokVU). Listen to the entire song. Actively engage with it. Hum or sing, look up information on the song, listen to something else immediately after. - Allow it to play on repeat in your head, note it, greet it with a calm matter-of-factness. - [[🛡️ Self-Distraction]]. Allow the song to play in the background of your mind, which helps with [[☀️ Equanimity]]. Or replace it with another sound or a mantra.. [[🔑 The mind can only hold so much|The mind can only focus on one thing at a time]]. - Crossword puzzles, sudoku puzzles, anagrams (not too easy, not too hard) - Recite a mantra, prayer, poem, or story. - Chew gum - Visualization - Imagine the song as a literal worm. Let it fall out of your ear. - Imagine a tape player in your mind. Press the stop button. - Hum or listen to a "Cure Tune" - ["Happy Birthday To You"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl62hhiBMOM) - ["God Save the Queen"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8KSAtos-dk) - [Peter Gabriel - "Sledgehammer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q) - [Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVJPgCn-Z8) - [Culture Club - "Karma Chameleon"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcA9LIIXWw) - [[🕯️ Being With]] ## Related - [[🛡️ Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)]] [^1]: SciShow: Why Is That Song Stuck in My Head?! [^2]: PsychologyToday: 3 Ways to Get a Song out of Your Head