Sometimes sneezes hit you and hit you hard.
Unless you’re rolling around in a pile of ragweed or sleeping on a pillow filled with pepper and cat hair, it usually starts completely out of nowhere. You feel that tickle deep up your nose. Just a tiny little quiver way, way up there, near where you eyeball connects to your brain. You squint a bit, pull your hand up to your mouth, and then BOOM! Your eyes squeeze tightly, your face contorts and crunches together, and it screams down your face at the speed of sneeze, exploding out of your mouth in a wet and ugly climax of snot droplets and head goo flying in all directions.
Despite the look of it, sneezing can feel pretty great. Not only does repeated sneezing give you a weird, spacey head rush, but it can also be quite refreshing. Those sinuses get cleaned out a bit. The nose hairs get a brief, windy blow down. Plus, you fire whatever might be irritating your nasal cavity out of your nose like a cannon, sending it flying across the room in a spastic I Must Get This Out Of Me overreaction.
Now, although sneezes are usually a surprise, there are times when you know they’re in there and you just want them to leave. What’s worse than that frustratingly stubborn sneeze? I’m talking about the kind that pauses all conversation, leaving your friends stuck grimacing and watching you writhe in an agitated Potentially Sneezing Soon state, trying to force the sneeze locked in your nose in or out.
It’s just awkward.
But that’s why it feels great to let that booming sneeze out, preferably in a punctuated rat-a-tat-tat sequence of three or more sneezes for the full effect. Tiny mousesqueak sneezes or booming dogbark sneezes welcome, because whatever your style man, that’s cool. It’s all good.
And hey, you know what’s the best part? Free blessing! Yes, everyone around you chimes in just when your body is buzzing, your sinuses are sparkling, and your head pipes are all vacuumed clean.
AWESOME!
Gesuhndeit!
Salute!
Bless you!
I only recently informed my sister that “God bless you” was a phrase used in the past because a sneeze could very easily mean the person was going to die soon.
She was less than impressed…
That’s an interesting piece of trivia.
Aye, you learn something new everyday.
My grand-baby Noah sneezes 3x everytime! Then laughs:)
I’ve also heard Bless you means I love you and so, most definitely wonderful to get the sneezes out and take the love in!
Hubby always sneezes 2 times in a row. I always tell him Bless you after the second one. If he sneezes more, I tell him he only gets blessed once. Joking of course.
Reblogged this on Soul of Life!.
Ok, so I have been sneezing 4 or 5 times in a row just about every hour for the past 3 weeks. I don’t know if I have a cold or if its where I’m moving and kicking up a bunch of dust. It is a good feeling, but usually by the 5th sneeze I can’t catch my breath and I can’t get to a tissue quick enough. My mom taught me a trick to rid of sneezes. When you feel that sneeze coming, tickle the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Works every time for me.
This doesn’t happen very often to me. The most number of times that I have sneezed is twice in a row. I think. I don’t really keep track of this stuff. Sometimes I sneeze when I look at the sun. I have no idea why this happens. ‘Tis one of the great mysteries of life…
Noah is the same! I’ll bet it is
discovered that particals in the air enter the nose, connect with nose hairs. Nose hair fibers and air particals are moved by the air that is breatheed and along with a breeze create a pin ball machine like-type action in the nose canal, sending a signal to the part(s) of the trigeminal that is(are) synopsed with the nerves that make the sneeze!
Now I wonder if what’s in the air, how many particals and nose hair length have any affect on the number and length of sneezes!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=looking-at-the-sun-can-trigger-a-sneeze
Thanks, wendy! That was an interesting article. I had no idea that scientists were putting any effort into studying sneezes. I’m glad they’re doing in though. Those guys will study anything. The endless curiosity of the scientific mind… Oh! And I also had no idea that only 1/3 of the population sneezes in the sun. I also didn’t know that it was genetic. I guess that explains why me brother does it too. Gosh, I’ve learned a lot today…
I used to tease my boyfriend about his sun-sneezing habit. I’m in the 2/3 who don’t sneeze and had never heard of this before…fascinating!
I almost always sneeze three times. Rarely once, occasionally more than three.
I sneeze in groups of 7 or 10. Never less than 7 times. Usually loud and machine gun style.
I get lots of blessings. :)
The best way to get a “stuck” sneeze out is to look at a bright light.
When I sneeze it’s always a minimum of six times – and I have no allergies. Someone once told me that a sneeze is the closest thing there is to reaching orgasm! Think about it; chances are you’l relish future sneezes!
I definitely coughed then sneezed as I was reading this awesomeness!
I sneeze sixteen times in a row. My Mother did this, so did my Grandmother and I recently learned my adult daughter in her late forties does this too. Thankfully this has never happened to me in a theater or crowd room.