Sleeping With ASMR

We came across Michael Koller in a previous blog post.

At the time I pointed out that he had a page dedicated to videos i.e. this one.

So far I have not tried reviewing videos which have been linked to from a web page. This is a venture into the unknown. It is not possible to add them into a playlist so this entire blog post will buck the trend of all previous blog posts on ASMR and ASMR-related videos.

The organisation of the page is impeccable, a series of links in a table. I’d guess that they are designed for education purposes.

The first video is:

Head to Toe: Male; Dr Michael Koller

There is a link to the main video entitled “Complete Video”. The video has also been divided into four parts (I’m not sure what the point of that is).

There is also a link called “Text”, this turns out to be a fourteen-page checklist. Students have a much greater memory than I have if they can memorise and utilise all of that.

The “Complete Video” link is to this video

the quality doesn’t seem to be great and it duplicates one that we’ve already seen on YouTube so not really worthy of additional review

The “part” videos are as follows:

The quality doesn’t improve just because they are a component of the main video above. These are also quite loud for what we want.

If the tone was a bit quieter, then these might have been ideal.

I was considering asking Dr Michael Koller if he would permit me to upload the videos to YouTube so that they could be enjoyed in the normal way. However sadly he has died so I am unable to do that. As such I cannot upload them to YouTube and therefore, I cannot add them to the Procrastination Pen playlist.

I very much suspect that this is a lost branch of a website which will one day be rediscovered by the Stritch school of medicine and taken down.

For that reason, if you want to see the videos, now is probably the time to do that.

Head to Toe: Female; Dr Michael Koller

For these the only videos available are the Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 videos rather than a complete video.

Parts 1, 2 and 3 are secured by a Stritch logon leaving only part 4 for us to see. There is no associated text file as there is for the Head-to-Toe Male video. The reason is not obvious.

This video is much better than any of the Head-to-Toe Male videos in that it is substantially quieter. If this video was on YouTube, it would be in the playlist. I suspect that one cannot just take other people’s videos and upload them to YouTube so I’m sorry for ASMR video fans out there who would like this to be in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Head and Neck; Dr Michael Koller

In contrast to the above this video does not come in parts -only the complete video is available. In addition, the above video does not have a “Text” link but for this video a link to the text file is provided.

The text file is four pages long and is again a checklist to go with the video.

At least the music used to start this is gentle, a bit of classic guitar music. Dr Koller introduces Nancy Grecko (assuming that is how you spell that).

The sound for the video is not great – a constant background noise. It is as if the sound track had been lifted from an ancient cassette tape. We have heard background noise like this before.

Given the track is not on YouTube it will not be in a playlist, however I may have considered it if it had been.

I have made an email request to a general contact address at Stritch to see if permission will be granted for me to upload these videos to YouTube. Assuming permission is granted I will upload the videos to my channel in the future and create a playlist as I would normally do. If no such list appears you can assume no such permission was given.

At intervals there are brief snatches of narration which do not have the background noise and this is distracting in that the noise is only emphasised as a consequence.

Thorax; Dr Michael Koller

There is an associated text file, which is again a four-page checklist. There is a bit of a theme developing.

This time there is a complete video

and two “part” videos

The complete video has funky start music (thanks but no thanks). The background noise is still there but just less pronounced than with the “Head and Neck” Video.

Dr Koller refers to “IPM1” in the intro this now seems to redirect to “Patient Centred Medicine 1”. I’m not clear what the Original Acronym was for although it does still form part of the URL in some cases like here: https://www.stritch.luc.edu/lumen/meded/ipm/ipm1/geninfo.htm

Dr Koller refers to this being a composite video composed of videos that are found elsewhere – my apologies if you notice some overlap (I have not done so).

This is a reasonable video. It is not truly quiet, but it could be said to be quite calm and methodical, not as good as Dr James Gill however.

Part way through, though, Dr Koller starts whacking a tambour which cannot be said to be properly restful.

The outro indicates the “patient” was Thad, assuming that is how you spell that.

A review of the “part” videos indicates that, as expected, they replicate the content of the complete video.

Pulmonary; Dr Michael Koller

Having established with reasonable assurance what the expected behaviour is i.e., the “part” videos are just bits of the complete video, I’m going to limit myself to reviewing the complete video in each case.

In this case there is a text file as before, as expected it is a checklist – this time three pages long. I think we’ve probably satisfied our curiosity about the checklists now and we can cease to review them. The complete video is here http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=F6FD6842-E2D0-46EF-8A56-1CF6D17BE36F

The two “part” videos are http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=DEA8DD0B-6C75-4FF9-B53C-8784425AA7FF and http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=75C0B723-E226-43DC-BEB4-B04050DD47D5

We are back to the classical guitar music approach to video introductions although it seems to be a bit louder than before, the inter-video volume problem reasserting itself

Dr Koller and Thad appear again. (Apologies to Thad if I am misspelling your name, happy to correct this if you let me know).

The sound is strange like there is a slight metallic tone to the voice (as if the microphone was inside a metal box). Thankfully we lack that awful background noise in this video though.

There is a set of breathing sounds on the track but (to me) these were not excessively loud and did not distract from the track in anyway. Your mileage may vary.

Again, we see the definition of egophony which we have seen before.

Heart; Dr Michael Koller

The obligatory text file (which I think we can assume now is a checklist) and the complete video supplemented with 2 “part” videos.

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=A04A60F2-B7F4-46B1-9512-3075A42A99E2

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=04E8B771-92D5-405F-97CA-796A9295DAEF

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=128F2A83-7ECB-43E2-8F33-32DA6F6C3F36

The complete video starts with the classical guitar music again (a bit loud this time). This video still features Dr Koller and Thad. Again, we have a slightly metallic edge to the sound.

This is very much of the quality of the previous video.

Atrial fibrillation – an irregular heartbeat.

Mediastinum an area between the lungs

Epigastrium upper central region of the abdomen

Towards the end there are various heart beat sounds but I did not find then distracting. You may have a different reaction.

Abdomen; Dr Michael Koller

This video begins with far-too-loud start music, no restful guitar music this time. It has the metallic sounding vocal track, Dr Koller and Thad as we have heard in previous videos. This really needs a better microphone, I think. If it wasn’t for this aggravating metallic echo I think this would have been quite a good video.

Complete: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=36FFE14E-6DDE-4186-93F5-17E239D611DB

Part 1: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=9A6B1293-A7AC-4BE1-B5F0-882773806144

Part 2: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=32693A4A-A3E7-4EA1-B2E7-53B8AD91DA63

Part 3: http://stritch.luc.edu/templates/videojump.cfm?hd=1&ID=F1A2F47E-302F-4A18-AC24-45C935050300

This is the last Dr Michael Koller video on the site. However, there are a lot more videos with other participants.

I’ll return here in a future blog post to review the others assuming the page stays up.

Sadly, I have not created a playlist this time (I may get permission to create one in the future from Stritch perhaps).

The overall playlist of videos covered so far in this blog is here:

The archive playlist (videos which were in the overall playlist but after repeated playings it turns out that was a mistake) is here:

The playlist of items that are great for ASMR (but contain an age verification function) – usually a great way to interrupt your listening in the middle of the night is here:

I hope that you find them restful

If you liked this article why not subscribe to this blog.

Until next time.

Photo by FOYN on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

Recently I had a comment on one of these blog items: “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and I realised that is the theme I have unconsciously been following with recent blog items. The rhyme follows on “and Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose”. I have of course covered eyes before for example in the Moran Core blog item.

However, ears – that’s more of a challenge. So to this item which is – you guessed it – an ears exam specifically:

Ears & Nose Examination

This starts a bit louder than I usually like, the patient looks really quite anxious for some reason. This is another one with a dull background throb echoing constantly through the track – I’ll guess air conditioning. The comments indicate that I’m not the first to explore this in terms of ASMR though.

No clues as to where it comes from or to the participants either.

More terms that require defining:

Patent, in this context it means open unobstructed.

Gingiva gums.

It’s only two minutes fifty five seconds and ends abruptly. So lets see what the channel has to offer.

MDforAll is the channel which states that the videos have been obtained from elsewhere, so presumably the content can be a bit random.

The channel contains sixty-seven videos as at today’s date some of which are non-medical. With this many videos we can afford to be a bit choosy about them. There are no playlists and so thinning these down to a handful may take some arbitrary choices.

Searching the videos, it would appear that there are some that feature the same professional and the same “patient” so perhaps we could stick with those. But given the channel is such a resource, perhaps we will be back in the near future to sample some of those other videos.

Pulmonary Examination

This one requires an age verification. At one time I used to include these in the Procrastination Pen playlist until I found that the playlist can occasionally be playing away and then abruptly stop and ask me to sign in to verify my age. Naff that effectively. So this one will not be in the playlist.

At three minutes and eight seconds it is a short one again. The voice is much better here I think so a shame it isn’t going to be included. However I have been debating creating an archive list of items that were in the Procrastination Pen playlist but on reflection didn’t make it. I think this is a natural candidate for that list.

Having watched the video I’m not quite clear what the fuss is about age-verification wise but I’m not about to go questioning YouTube’s policy – life is too short.

Neurological Examination

I notice that the professional here has a badge on her tunic but the visibility is so poor I can’t make it out.

However, the patient states that she is at “Mid Western University” the badge could be similar to the one on the medical professional but I cannot be certain.

The website seems to indicate it should look like this.

Midwestern University has its own YouTube Channel. Two hundred and thirty-three videos at the time I am looking at it but none of them seem to include these two people.

However, it looks a nicely populated channel and maybe worthy of a future visit for ASMR – applicable videos.

George Bush is the president at the time of filming so we know that this is filmed between 2001 and 2009.

Babinski:

(It seemed easier than a definition).

Neck Examination

The patient here is very relaxed. If it wasn’t for the background noise this would be ideal.

It’s only two minutes sixteen seconds and I think in this case it can be included in the Procrastination Pen playlist.

Upper Extremities Examination

This continues in the same way as those seen before. I have often reflected when reviewing videos that if there was a sound filter that worked against forced air systems (such as air conditioning) on the video sound track the quality of many of the videos we’ve seen (and heard) would be so much the better.

PIP Joint (Proximal interphalangeal joints) the second joint of each finger when counting downwards from the finger end.

The medical professional is a bit loud here for me, but I don’t think it’s one to dismiss from the Procrastination Pen playlist. However, it might be one that gets weeded in the future.

General Physical Examination

Wow this is loud! We find that the medical professional is Karen Myers and she is a PA student. I think she says the “patient” is Mrs Dewer but it is quite fast and right at the start of the video so that might well not be correct. I think “PA Student” is a student Physician Assistant.

Nystagmus – eye movement sometimes termed “dancing eyes”.

The video settles down sound-wise (but you may still want to mute the volume a little bit). One of the problems of a playlist is that sometimes the inter-video volume isn’t that normalised – if you’re asleep when this happens it can give you a bit of a start.

Lower Extremities Examination

This starts a little quieter and is quite a good beginning.

Calcaneus – the heel.

If anything with time it becomes calmer – possibly the best one of the set so far. Definitely one for the Procrastination Pen playlist, I think.

Ears & Nose Examination

This is where we came in so eyes, ears and mouth we have covered and nose is covered here.

Cardiovascular Examination

Another one that asks for an age verification so it will not be in the Procrastination Pen playlist. There’s nothing particularly adventurous in this video so I’m not sure why. But as I’ve mentioned it is frustrating to encounter the age verification prompt if you’re half asleep at the time.

It is a shame because this isn’t bad in terms of sound so it might have made the playlist in other circumstances.

Abdomen Examination

Very short at two minutes fifty nine seconds. Perversely there is easily as much flesh on display here but no age verification prompt. Not that we’ll be watching in any case because it is the sound we’re after.

This is quiet – easily good enough for the playlist I think.

Given the age verification issue has begun to bite I have created a procrastination pen playlist for any that we encounter with that prompt. |(Some people reading might be bothered to try to watch them). I regard it as a pain in the progress of night-time listening.

The videos requiring Age verification playlist is here:

(I have moved any from the main Procrastination Pen playlist that I have noticed require this into the above list.)

The archive playlist of videos that were once in the main Procrastination Pen playlist but have been found (after repeated review) to not exactly meet that high standard is here:

I only maintain that list in case I archive one of your favourites.

The MDforAll playlist on the Procrastination Pen channel is here:

The playlist of all videos covered so far in this blog is here:

I hope that you find it relaxing.

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Sleeping With ASMR

One of the aspects of being in the fifth decade is that memory is not what it was. The title meant absolutely nothing to me. Then I discovered that I had encountered it before in this blog, not only that, but I’d defined it as well.

For people, like me who had forgotten ROM and MMT , MMT is manual muscle testing ROM is range of motion. Both of these appear to be occupational therapy terms and look likely to be the subject of future searches for ASMR videos.

The associated text tells us “Jordan Butler: ROM & MMT (gravity resisted & eliminated) upper extremities.”. Given the channel is called Michelle Hanigan I am assuming that Jordan Butler is the “patient” in this one.

The Michelle Hanigan channel has no playlists but that should not be a problem for us on this occasion as there are only two videos in it, the featured one is this:

ROM & MMT

As the video opens it’s pretty obvious this is not a typical work environment – sofa – immense TV – modern looking occasional table – almost certainly domestic. I’m assuming that this is some kind of video put together by a student of occupational therapy. It does not have the appearance of one of those videos discussed previously which is professionally composed in order to mimic a medical examination.

The sound quality isn’t fantastic. Although Michelle has a good voice it’s a bit muted in this recording, probably resulting from use of a remote rather than a lapel mic.

Michelle seems to be consulting notes off camera on a few occasions which I think reinforces the view that this is part of a learning experience. In addition, at intervals they both seem to be trying not to laugh. The person holding the “camera” makes the odd noise occasionally – I think that confirms the video isn’t a professional effort. Also at the end the dog makes an appearance.

Despite the sound limitations I think this is a good one ASMR-wise and worthy of inclusion in the playlist.

The second video is this one:

Movement Video

To be honest this seems to be a shorter version of the previous video (this one is ten minutes twenty six seconds the previous one is fourteen minutes twelve seconds)

On that basis there is no point in including this one in the playlist as well.

As there is only one video on this occasion, I will not create a Michelle Hanigan playlist. However, the ROM & MMT video I will add to the overall list of ASMR videos covered so far in this blog, which is here:

I hope that you’re still finding them restful.

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Sleeping With ASMR

The video quality for this one is a tad poor. And perhaps I don’t mean a tad. However it is quite different to what we have had before and it is partly because of its age and its purpose. This one is recorded (to video cassette tape I assume) in 1996 and reflects its time I think.

The sound quality is actually not as bad as in some of the other videos I have already featured on this blog (and no doubt many to come). There is no loud equipment noises in the background for example.

It is designed to inform/educate and as such is calm and unadulterated by extraneous sounds (such as a snazzy backing track for example). It’s recorded at the University of Michigan – Department of Neurology, February 16th 1996.

The Neurologic Exam part 1

This video is of sufficient quality that it crops up in a number of ASMR video compilations which are the kind of ASMR videos I do not watch anymore. It is too much like a box of sweets in which a good twenty percent of the sweets you do not like. Compilation videos are complicated by the fact that no one seems to be able to get the inter-clip volumes to agree. If you start off at a quiet sleep-friendly volume you can be woken sometime later by an individual with a predisposition to bellow. This is John Wald and Douglas Gelb in a demonstration of how to run a Neurologic Exam but who (presumably inadvertently) have good voices for ASMR. In this I feel that Douglas edges out John slightly. Which is good news because in this video he also does the majority of the talking.

Johnwaldmd is the channel (presumably the John Wald MD in the video footage although somewhat more advanced in years I would suggest). I’m guessing a great many of the people who watch the ASMR video compilations were probably as yet unborn when this video was first recorded.

There are only seven videos in this channel and it is obvious that we will not be looking at many of those; some of them appear to appeal to quite a narrow audience (probably family and friends).

I think we can consign four of these into the metaphorical ASMR bin without further review, leaving the above one and two others. Part two of the above presentation:

The Neurologic Examination part 2

This is the “review” section which effectively is giving instruction on how to perform the neurologic exam. In my view this is not as wonderful from an ASMR perspective so I think it won’t make the grade for the playlist.

There is also this video:

VTS 01 0

This is both silent and only 30 seconds long so it may have been some kind of test…

So one video only this time around folks.

On that basis I have not created a playlist for johnwaldmd.

The overall playlist containing all the videos featured in this blog is here:

I hope that you find it relaxing.

If you liked this blog article why not subscribe to this blog.

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Sleeping With ASMR

This one is a confessed cheat. Where to find an ASMR video? Well why not choose a channel dedicated to ASMR? However, if anyone watching this can identify the original source of this video, I would be very grateful – perhaps I’ll follow up with a further article to show the original video unadulterated by editing.

Hand and Wrist Examination (ASMR)

In fact this might be a way forwards for me as I have been trying to stick to the more po-faced approach of avoiding those videos dedicated to ASMR and trying instead to find ASMR videos by choosing a subject area – i.e. accidental ASMR videos. But hey, why not get a leg up from the work other people are doing in this area.

I notice it is entitled “ROM and MMT”. Here ROM is Range of Motion, MMT is Manual Muscle Testing.

This perhaps will give me a new category of ASMR videos to search for in the future.

Trace is the “patient” and Jane the medical professional. Judging by Jane’s T-shirt design she is working in Occupational Therapy. However, the entwined snake emblem (Caduceus it appears to be called) is widely used it seems (from a Google image search), so this does not reliably tell me where she works.

Jane has a pretty good voice in terms of ASMR and Trace does not get a lot to say. The surroundings are not typically medical, I would guess someone’s front room. It was uploaded six years ago, but potentially it is older than that. Presumably this video was once on a medical channel and has been snaffled and probably edited to enhance the ASMR effect.

I would make a guess that the two know each other and that potentially this is a student video used for assessment. (There are a large number of these and I guarantee some will appear in future blog items).

Not unexpectedly, ASMR exams – for that is the channel we are dealing with – has a great range of videos. Because the channel owner has done all the work for me, in general the videos are excellent for ASMR.

Twenty six videos as at today’s date ranging in posting date from nine years ago to five years ago. (Which is sad as it looks like the channel is no longer maintained).

It would not be the first time I choose to blog about an item that is now thoroughly out of date.

There is one playlist on the site:

This features only six of the twenty-six videos for some reason, and all seem to have been posted nine years ago. It does not include my chosen video above. You get that as a bonus-extra on this occasion.

This gives me a nice shortlist of videos to cover in one blog post. However, given the other content is good, I will make a point of following on with the remaining twenty (probably spread over a few blog posts to avoid those articles getting too long).

Apologies for the sequential nature of these articles.

I suspect you’re keen to get to the playlist – in which case scroll to the end and there you will find it.

Physical Examination #2 (ASMR)

Fans of this blog should be familiar with this one. It has had an entire article dedicated to it and it is already in the playlist.

Physical Examination #3 (ASMR)

The title at the start of the video is “Abdominal Examination” there is no indication of the originating channel.

The participants are Dr Thomas and Mr Jones the “patient” apparently. It gives on screen prompts to indicate which stage the examination has entered. Dr Thomas’ voice is good: lovely and quiet. No Vicki Scott but great anyway. Both characters could easily be of Welsh extraction (I’m not great at accents) but there is no other clue as to which institution this is.

The abdominal exam looks positively painful but Mr Jones seems completely unfazed by it. It is all very calm.

Strangely at 5:48 it suddenly changes to “Cardiovascular Examination” and Dr Thomas introduces himself to Mr Jones again. Then at 12:18 it becomes “Respiratory System Examination” and Dr Thomas introduces himself to Mr Jones again.

This is the sort of video I dislike – one that was several distinct videos edited together to make one long one.

This is a shame because Dr Thomas has an excellent voice but it’s right down there with ASMR loop videos for distraction – it will not be in the playlist.

I wish I could find the original, separate, videos as they would be of a quality that I would definitely include in the playlist.

Physical Examination #4 (ASMR)

The video quality is not marvellous. In fact, I think I could describe it as fuzzy.

The intro states it is health assessment 3310. The closest I can find is NSG 3310. This seems to have been offered through an institution called Troy University.

There is a channel for Troy University and it has a great number of videos (read too many to count right now). Checking if there are 3310 assessment videos for Troy University we get a list (for example

and

) but I was unable to find this one.

The “patient” is Luke. Presumably students watching this would know who the medical professional was here. At nearly forty-five minutes this is another lengthy exam video, they must be covering every angle.

The voice here is marginal in ASMR terms (I’ve probably been spoiled by Hollie Berry).

Still it is good enough for inclusion in the playlist. (Perhaps it will be one that falls victim to a future weeding process).

Another term I was not clear about prior to this is “Auscultate” – listening to sounds from the chest.

Associated with this is the term “egophony” this is the use of the E sound. If the E is heard to sound like an A then it is diagnostic.

Stereognosis” the ability to perceive what a solid object is without actually looking at it.

Graphesthesia” recognising writing on the skin by touch only.

Brachioradialis” a muscle of the forearm.

Luke seems about as entertained as a small child being asked to “stay still and stop making a noise”. I’m sure he went on to develop a fantastic medical career but he certainly isn’t keen here. Possibly because this is being recorded on a Sunday and he could be out relaxing and having a good time.

Barack Obama is the president so we know this was recorded between 2009 and 2017.

Physical Examination #5 (ASMR)

Twenty-five and a half minutes so a more usual length. This time we get an introduction which tells us it is the Northeastern Physician Assistant Program 2010.

A search on this reveals this channel: redbreadproductions

Where we get the same video but in three parts – this looks like it is going to be one featured in a future blog post

Out of interest the three videos are:

and

I will cover these properly in a future blog post.

This means that this one must be a compilation

Initially it is entitled “The General Physical Examination”. It is going well until the clunking sounds of the weighing scales which are designed to awaken the dead. After that though it calms down a reasonable amount. The medical professional and the “patient” in this seem to be having a lot of fun making the video. I am guessing it is educational in intent.

At the end the thanks go to Rebecca Scott Ph.D, PA-C and Rebekah Saunders, PA-SI.

I’m guessing Rebecca did the exam and for our purposes she has a very good voice. If the video is a compilation this is invisible so it can go into the playlist.

Physical Examination #6 (ASMR)

This one starts with an intro stating “Stritch School of Medicine IPM Physical Exam Series Head to Toe Examination on a Male”

Stritch School of Medicine redirects to Loyola University Chicago

The only one that references Stritch appears to be this one:

Entertaining I’m sure but zero on the ASMR scale.

So how does our video size up?

Dr Michael Koller – searching for him indicates that he has a page of original videos which will be worthy of a future blog post perhaps.

John is the “patient” here. Dr Koller does not at first seem to have your classic ASMR voice. This improves as the examination commences. Although he isn’t going to be a James Gill. The video at just over forty minutes is getting on the long side. It is also on the fuzzy side so we are to be thankful it is the sound that we are focused on. It’s good enough I think so I’m going to add it to the playlist.

Yes I know that there are only five videos here – for some reason YouTube informs me that one of the six videos in this playlist is hidden. I’m still not clear why this is.

I’ll split up the remaining twenty and post them in the next few blog posts.

The playlist for ASMR Exams is here:

The playlist covering all videos featured in blog posts thus far is here:

It may be possible to identify the source organisations for some of these videos, in which case I may do some follow up articles delving more deeply into them.

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Photo by Jenny Jackson on Unsplash

Sleeping With ASMR

This time have one which appears to be verifiably from a medical school – Warwick Medical School in fact.

I did not find the introductory music particularly restful. It is not the first time I have wished that I could edit videos on YouTube (so that I only get the nice bits). (The music quits at nine seconds – in case you want to forward it).

Dr Gill turns up a lot on YouTube and I have no doubt will crop up again in another blog item. He has a very restful voice (well in the videos, I don’t know him personally you understand.)

Respiratory Examination

Not unexpectedly Warwick Medical School has quite a number of such videos. Not all of which are spectacular from the ASMR point of view (it was not their purpose in life let’s face it).

Roughly one hundred and nineteen videos as at today – too many I think to cover in one blog item (unless you’re reading this in order to get some sleep in which case I’m sure that it would have been ideal. I’m sorry to disappoint.)

Fortunately they have been considerate enough to provide their own playlist for this purpose:

Here:

This is still forty three videos long however – perhaps sufficient for a whole series of blog items (now there’s a thought).

I notice that of the forty three – nineteen are actually on the YouTube channel of Dr James Gill himself rather than that of Warwick Medical School – well that’s convenient.

As Dr James Gill has a good voice and his own channel, I suspect we will be returning to him at a future date and so we can discount the videos on his channel for the current moment.

One of the forty three videos comes up flagged as private so we have forty two less nineteen to look at.

That will make this a very long blog post.

If you just want your ASMR kicks scroll right to the end where you will find the playlist details.

Clinical Examination

This is also part of the cranial nerve exam videos – a subject which appears to be very popular on YouTube amongst ASMR devotees.

Clinical Examination

Dr Gill again – obviously a prolific supplier of YouTube videos. I look forward to exploring his channel in a later blog article. This is also a further video in the cranial nerve series, which is proving as popular as the reflex hammer videos about which entire compilations have been put together. (I am not a great fan of compilation videos unless the source videos just cannot be found.)

Clinical Examination

I’m pretty sure this does not qualify under the current category of medical examination as it is more of an instruction video. Actually it is rather good, so I’ll make an exception and add it to the playlist in any case.

Clinical Skills

Dr Gill again, although it is also an instruction video I’m also well-disposed to it and so it is going into the playlist (also it has the benefit of lacking any additional peppy music).

Clinical Examination

Here we see Aden again (as the patient). He seems to crop up in a few of these.

Clinical Examination

Aden crops up again but here he is the medical student in the doctor role. Actually the video is rather good – perhaps a large number of medical students are naturally softly spoken.

Annotated – Clinical Examination

Dr Gill again in another early video – if you’ve stuck with this you’ll recognise the patient as well.

Clinical Examination of – The Shoulder

And yet more Dr Gill (I said he was prolific).

Hip Clinical Examination

I love the fact that Dr Gill asks the “patient” to show him his umbilicus as if this was a reasonably well known term. I had to look it up – it’s your belly button by the way.

Clinical Skills Tutorial

There is something wrong with the sound on this one – it is significantly quieter than the others here. So I think I will drop this one from the playlist.

Clinical History Example

For me the voices in this one are less relaxing so this too I’ll discount from the playlist.

Warwick Approach to Clinical History Taking

Again, not really an ASMR inducer so this one isn’t on the playlist.

Breast Clinical Examination

Not what you’d expect. The person involved is wearing a plastic pair – which I think means I can include it without causing offence. Let me know if offended and I’ll delete it from the playlist.

Breast Examination Models

These are obviously the same as the plastic pair the person was wearing in the video above. Not desperately marvellous from an ASMR point of view though so I will not include it in the playlist.

The Shoulder

Again this voice isn’t quite right for me, so I won’t include it in the playlist. I include these videos only for completeness as different people react differently.

Spine Clinical Examination

Dr James Gill again, the start music is a bit bright but at least it is brief. Not quite as good as the first one but still worthy of inclusion in the playlist I think.

Hand Clinical Examination

What comes home to me in a lot of these ASMR videos is the huge distance between the date of birth of the participants and my own date of birth. In this case 30 years. Fortunately when I am trying to sleep my brain is unlikely to be alert enough to take in what this means for my age – which must be alike to Methuselah now.

Knee Clinical Examination

Dr Gill again – who is starting to seem a significant ASMR asset, the videos in which he appears are quite consistent in terms of relaxing.

Clinical Examination

Dr Gill this time a clinical examination of the respiratory system. Again with the stimulating initial music – it must be some kind of Warwick Medical School brand.

The whole experience conveys an atmosphere of stillness. I can imagine that being treated by Dr Gill is quite destressing.

Thyroid Clinical Examination

Freakily out of focus at the beginning. However that isn’t going to influence any ASMR symptoms. This one features Abbey again (we saw her in the hand clinical examination earlier). This one is really technical in places, I just let it wash over. Let me know if it bothers you and I’ll delete it from the playlist.

The subject of bruit comes up in several of these videos – an audible swishing sound – usually an abnormal one.

Thyroid Examination Demonstration

Dr Gill and Abbey again, who must be the most reliable volunteer in this set so far. If anything this one appears to be more relaxing than some that have gone before in this blog item.

Abdominal System Examination

Dr Gill, and again it starts with the camera fighting for focus. Here Dr Gill is examining David (who I don’t think we’ve seen before). As before a beautifully calm presentation.

Again I’ve created a playlist of these (the longest of this blog so far) which is here:

I’ve updated the complete playlist to reflect the new videos as well

That is here:

I hope that you find it relaxing

Photo by

Victoria Tronina on Unsplash

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Failure

Throughout my life I have liked writing, but I have never understood writing.

Someone my age once said that she felt that during our time in the school system there had been some great social experiment in which the basic rules of punctuation and grammar were avoided as if we would ingrain them though some process of osmosis.

Certainly I can only remember being told to add a full stop when I needed to breathe and commas were just little breaks in between.

As for concepts like verbs and adjectives I remember a conversation about doing words at one stage but little else. So in many ways I am ill-prepared for a blog, a book or anything involving the written word.

So it is that when reading that this offends people http://theeditorsblog.net/2016/12/19/please-learn-the-rules/ I feel like a failure.

I considered that a person writing a blog should try to understand something about writing. The only method that I can conceive of is to read accounts written by other people who have tried it. To this end subscribing to blogs written by people who have been writing for some time seemed an obvious avenue.

It is surprising therefore how often these successful bloggers start to write about failure.

For example:

https://writetodone.com/10-ways-to-stop-feeling-like-a-failure-as-a-writer/

It seems that failure is a pain that can afflict those who genuinely know nothing and those who really should be feeling great about their success.

I read a great deal about counselling now. (I need to do this because I am a volunteer counsellor). Failure is something that will feature in this reading.

Attitudes to failure can be shaped by a person’s upbringing.  But no counselling literature I have encountered maintains that anyone is a failure. Hence when working with someone who perceives themselves to be a failure the first technique is encouragement.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Austrian psychiatrist

I studied Adlerian Counselling and I think that some quotes from Alfred Adler may be relevant here:

“No experience is in itself a cause of success or failure. … We are not determined by our experiences but are self-determined by the meaning that we give to them”.

“No one need remain inescapably bound by the limitations of their brains all their life”

“We will always find in all human beings this dominant theme running through their lives – the struggle to rise from an inferior position to a superior position, from defeat to victory”

Failure 2
Photo by Alex Smith from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/naked-baby-sitting-813616/

It seems however that fear of failure is not constant throughout a person’s life. For example children learn to walk and in the process fall over many times. However this is not seen as a barrier to learning to walk.

Similarly on the way to becoming adept at speech children make mistakes and this causes them no pain. I remember that my Nephew said ominge for a while on the way to saying orange.

There is no doubt many paths from a child that embraces failure to an adult that has to get it right first time.

Failure 3

High standards (either from parents or schools or some combination) may have had a role to play.

“Over-parenting” may teach a child that they are incapable.

Failure 4

The simple act of labelling a person as a failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; worse still if the label is derogatory.

For this reason I dislike the term “loser”. A label such as “loser” is easy to apply but is going to discourage the person it is applied to.

A person is not a failure. They can fail to perform a specific task but that does not make them intrinsically a failure.

In fact each failure is a chance to learn and to apply the learning when you try again.

Failure 5
Photo by Amaury Salas on Unsplash

Many enlightened businesses now embrace failure as a fact of life.

Some regard failure as a pathway to success; if you haven’t succeeded yet then you haven’t failed enough.

Fear of failure can lead to undesirable side effects such as perfectionism and procrastination.

Fear of failure can lead to avoidant behaviour. Whilst avoiding the problem alleviates the fear it also removes any chance at having the experience. This ultimately means that you have no chance to succeed.

Failure 6
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

The only way to develop as a writer is to fail. I have no doubt that in some years I will look back on the items I blogged today and wonder at how inelegant they were.
But unless I keep on trying I will never get the chance to get to a better place with my writing.
The lessons of a child are the ones we need to recapture; it’s ok to fall over when you’re trying to walk. Later you can get up and have another try.

 

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https://www.adler.edu/page/about/history/about-alfred-adler
https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/06/23/why-we-all-have-fear-of-failure/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/overcome_fear_of_failure_be_aware_and_take_action
https://amotherfarfromhome.com/how-to-erase-your-childs-fear-of-messing-up/
http://thebrainflux.com/how-fear-of-failure-affects-learning/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/05/parenting-tomorrow-why-should-let-children-fail
http://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=srhonors_theses
https://www.empoweringparents.com/article/loser-how-labels-stick-to-your-child-and-affect-behavior/
https://willyac.wordpress.com/everyday-articles/dont-fear-failure/
https://www.arrkgroup.com/thought-leadership/fail-fast-fail-often-explained/
https://webstandardssherpa.com/reviews/breaking-the-perfectionism-procrastination-infinite-loop/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/overcoming-self-sabotage/201005/avoidance-anxiety-self-sabotage-how-running-away-can-bite-you

Happy Seed – Worry Seed

I’ve used this technique myself with clients. It is a good creative technique to use with people who worry excessively or are anxious. Sometimes it is good to use techniques other than talking (and listening) in the room. Visual techniques are helpful in that they display to the client where their current thinking style/behaviour is taking them. It also can help them to clearly see changes that they need to make.

Everyone in the world has two seeds. There is a happy seed and a worry seed. You can do what you like with either seed – there is no instruction book. However the way you behave towards these two seeds is not without consequences.

This exercise is to show what happens when you pay attention to one or other seed.

Draw a happy seed and a worry seed at the bottom of a large piece of paper.

Happy Seed 1

The client can pay attention to either seed. They must first nominate one as the happy seed and one as the worry seed. (Draw a label clearly at the base of the paper so that there is no doubt which one is which).

They can pay attention to either seed. Each seed needs feeding and watering so that it can grow.

If the client is prone to worry it is usually easier for them to pay attention to the worry seed. If a worry comes to mind have them draw a shoot from the worry seed. Have them attach a leaf to this shoot labelled with that worry.

Happy Seed 2

At this stage the worry seed is developing into a plant. The happy seed is still just a seed. The client has free rein to add shoots to either seed. Have them add more shoots with whatever comes to mind.

Their predominant thinking style will rise to the surface. Someone who worries draws more worries.

Happy Seed 3

Dependent upon how much the client has to bring up it might be that you will need a very large piece of paper for this. (Plain wallpaper for example is good).

As you watch what the client is doing you can see that they have a tendency to water and feed one particular plant dependent upon their thinking style.

Happy Seed 4

This can continue for as long as you have time designated to this. However a definite pattern will have emerged.

Happy Seed 5

Eventually the client will run out of things to add – or will have added as much as they can within the time you allotted for this activity. There will usually be an asymmetry between the two plants:

Happy Seed 6

At which point you can point out to them that in life there is only one pot of time. They can pay attention to anything that they like but only one thing at a time. If they pay attention to the worry seed – they care for it, water it and it will start to grow.

A first worry leaf develops. With further attention to the worry seed another leaf pops up. If they keep caring for the worry seed in time a tree of worries will fill the page.

Their life will be full of worries and there will be no space left for happy.

They can’t care for the worry seed and at the same time pay attention to the happy seed. With no attention to the happy seed they concentrate all their energy on worry.

The worry tree becomes so huge that it is overwhelming. By comparison the stunted happy tree is undeveloped. In fact the happy tree is completely overshadowed by the worry tree and is not going to grow properly.

Get them then to consider how life would be different if they spent at least some time on the happy seed.

Better still if they watered and cared for the happy seed at the expense of the worry seed. How much different would life be then.

The intention is for them to seek out the parts of their lives that are happy and to minimise the time they spend worrying.

Thanks to my counsellor Rachel http://www.elyhypnotherapy.com/ for suggesting this technique.

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