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