Speaker 1: Stay Calm is a production of I Heart Radio. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate
Speaker 1: for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure,
Speaker 1: reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier,
Speaker 1: healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help
Speaker 1: you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
Speaker 1: dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story,
Speaker 1: offer a simple practical tip about how you or a
Speaker 1: loved one can stay a bit calmer in your life,
Speaker 1: and then we'll end each episode together with a moment
Speaker 1: of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what
Speaker 1: I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably,
Speaker 1: take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey. Today,
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk a little less about meditation and
Speaker 1: a lot more about lullabies. Because on Stay Calm, we
Speaker 1: talk talk about tools that can allow us or our
Speaker 1: children or parents, friends to access a deep calm that
Speaker 1: lies within every human being, that gives us an equanimity
Speaker 1: and a resilience to the challenges of life, and wakes
Speaker 1: up the neural pathways of the brain that are needed
Speaker 1: for decision making, creativity, focus, problem solving, resilience. Now, meditation
Speaker 1: is great for a child from about the age of
Speaker 1: ten years and up. There's even a transcendental meditation technique
Speaker 1: for children from the ages of four to ten. But
Speaker 1: what about this most vulnerable population, babies. It turns out
Speaker 1: the first thousand days of a baby's life, from conception
Speaker 1: to the second birthday, are the most impactful days that
Speaker 1: child will ever have. It's during this time that a
Speaker 1: child learns to think, walk, talk, see, and it's during
Speaker 1: this time that the child is most vulnerable to the
Speaker 1: stress of the mother, father, fear, and anxiety in the environment,
Speaker 1: and that can have a powerful negative influence in the
Speaker 1: formation of that child's life. We know music in general
Speaker 1: has that powerful effect on health, but let's go to
Speaker 1: the level of a lullaby, a song sung to the
Speaker 1: child by a loved one. That human voice resonates far
Speaker 1: more deeply in the life of that baby. It stimulates language,
Speaker 1: it promotes cognitive development, it improves memory and attention span,
Speaker 1: and here's a big one, it decreases stress levels and anxiety.
Speaker 1: The baby is crying and upset before bed or wakes
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night with a nightmare,
Speaker 1: and the loved when comes in and sings a lullaby
Speaker 1: for a few minutes and the baby drifts off to sleep.
Speaker 1: A negative emotion has been transformed into a wonderfully positive emotion.
Speaker 1: Or when the mother sings a lullaby, she releases a
Speaker 1: hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is a so called breastfeeding hormone.
Speaker 1: It's also the Cutler's hormone. What that does is it
Speaker 1: strengthens the bond between mother and baby. And now the
Speaker 1: baby falls asleep surrounded by such trust, intimacy, and protection.
Speaker 1: And finally, what lullabies do. They help set a routine
Speaker 1: in that child's life. Oh, my mother, my caregivers singing
Speaker 1: a lullaby, it must be time for bed. Isn't it
Speaker 1: interesting that such a simple thing is a few minutes
Speaker 1: of singing a lullaby can have such a profound transformative
Speaker 1: effect in the life of this vulnerable child. And if
Speaker 1: we have an infant, or we know someone who has
Speaker 1: an infant, we want to take the time to give
Speaker 1: that child an influence of calm and peace, to sing
Speaker 1: a song that will wake up from deep within that
Speaker 1: child that influence of calm and peace and will strengthen
Speaker 1: the neural pathways and put this child on a trajectory
Speaker 1: for a healthy, happy life. What I'd like to do
Speaker 1: now is conclude with two of my favorite lullabies. To
Speaker 1: La Tula, which is a Zulu lullaby, and my old
Speaker 1: favorite summertime sung as a lullaby to lat too to
Speaker 1: lam to lat to loam to lat to to lam
Speaker 1: to lave to love to la to to love to
Speaker 1: lave to love, to laugh to to love mamori as
Speaker 1: I cooking, gasy am hollelka ety boabo o boo your
Speaker 1: live sob sieh my buncabe batty booabo who boo some
Speaker 1: summer time and the living is easy fash or jumping,
Speaker 1: and the cotton is u, your dad is reach, and
Speaker 1: your mos good looking. So hush little baby do te
Speaker 1: croy one of these