Are you like me, and sing to yourself all the time? Except it’s not totally to yourself when others are around because they hear it? And when you get a particular song, or even just a particular line or two of a song, stuck in your head, do you sing it on endless repeat?
If so, I feel sorry for your friends. Just kidding. But if you feel sorry for them, too, try this method that’s worked for me to stop myself from singing constantly: when you catch yourself singing out loud, close your mouth and silently count backwards from 10. Do this while consciously breathing, just like with the common anger management tool of counting backwards.
Count from more than 10 if you need to. This can be enough of a pattern interrupt to stop your singing. If that doesn’t seem to work, try reciting the letters of the alphabet backwards: z, y, x, w, v, u, t, etc. The idea, I believe, is to occupy your brain with other things for a bit until the urge to sing wears off, at least a little.
If that doesn’t work and you feel you need even more brain occupation, try doing some math like counting by 3’s or multiplying each number by 2 to get the next number: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.
You may need to do this process several times for it to stick. But I’ve found that it has worked to help decrease the amount of singing the same lines of a song over and over again that I do throughout my day.
So, to sum up, when a song virus makes you lyric vomit, do some math to stop the spread.