Scream!

July 18th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

What a lot of stuff going on these days. And we’re only a bit more than halfway through the year. Another 23+ weeks left to go! Including a presidential election. Everything—everything!—is abnormal. And we are told that this might be the new normal. Lord, have mercy!

Did you feel like screaming?

Well, I have a bit of good news for you, if you did. Iceland to the rescue!

Not exactly, but close. First you need to make your way to this website.

Time to let go of all your pent-up pandemic frustrations, incapacities, losses, and collapses. In a well-voiced scream! The web app here records your lament and releases it in the Icelandic wilderness. For real!

You’ve been through a lot this year and it looks like you need the perfect place to let your frustrations out. Somewhere big, vast and untouched. It looks like you need Iceland. Record your scream and we’ll release it in Iceland’s beautiful, wide-open spaces. And when you’re ready, come let it out for real. You’ll feel better, we promise.”

It’s actually part of a program called Promote Iceland, a collaboration between the government and some private institutions. Perhaps to remind people of all that the nation has to offer and maybe you will go visit it once all these virus bedlam abates.

There are seven strategic speakers placed in the empty Icelandic countryside. You can take your pick. (You can also see those speakers and hear others scream, from all over the world. Quite therapeutic, I must say.)

The website offers some tips for screamers:

1. Consider what your ‘scream’ will be. Some people will use volume, some will use words, some may even use breath. 2. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, a slight bend in your knees. Relax your shoulders. You may find it useful to put your hands on your hips or use your arms to help push out some of the pent-up emotion. Follow your instincts. 3. Imagine a baby when it cries and screams. The noise comes from the baby’s gut. This is where your scream should come from. If it helps, put your hands on your belly and take a few deep breaths before you begin.”

Says Zoë Aston, mental health consultant:

Screaming as a therapeutic tool was developed in the 1970s as a way to release pent-up emotion. What we don’t realize is that the psychological response to wanting to scream lights up a part of our brains called the amygdala. Part of the benefit of screaming comes from being able to make a loud noise into a wide, open, undisturbed space. This literally allows your amygdala to release the stress stored there and move forward.”

The website also adds the caution:

This is a starting point. If you need mental health support it is imperative that you seek out professional help.”

Good advice for ye stressed-out ones.

But I’d suggest “screaming” out to God.

From my distress I called upon the LORD;
The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.
The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?
Psalm 118:5–6

Here’s some more advice from THE Professional Help Giver, our great God of all mercies:

When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Your consolations delight my soul.
Psalm 94:19

I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Psalm 16:8

For such is God, Our God forever and ever; H
e will guide us until death.
Psalm 48:14

SOURCES:
NPR, Huffington Post