If you are in the middle of doing something that requires intense attention, do you find that loud noises can be very distracting?
If you are trying to fall asleep, do you find noise, even if not even all that loud, distracting?
If you are reading, do you find noise (lawn mower, or other similar type of noises) distracting?
If you are having a one-on-one meaningful conversation with someone, do you find loud noises to be distracting?
If you are feeling down, fragile, sad or anxious, do you find noise to be intrusive and or distracting?
Do you find people laughing, talking, talking on the phone, etc. loudly (in your view) to be irritating and or rude?
If you have answered NO to all the above questions, let me ask you this: Do you find silence intrusive and or unsettling?
Chatting with people about "busy minds" it seems as if there are many of us who have minds that just will not be quiet. Whether we are trying to fall asleep, relax, read, and or grabbing a few minutes of stillness, our minds keep prattling on.
The brain is able to sift out some sounds: traffic noise if we live near a busy road, trains if we live near a train track, planes coming and going if we live near an airport, sirens of different kinds if we live in a big city, and so on. Those kinds of sounds although to begin with may have disturbed us to some degree, after a time often fade and we no longer seem to "hear" them.
The constancy of sounds deemed non-threatening as in: the hum of a fridge, the rattle of a fan, the whirring of a washing machine or dish-washer, the whooshing of an air-con, the sounds of a TV or a radio, etc. as long as they remain constant, we hardly notice them. We do however notice if those sounds unexpectedly change, as in they stop, or start to make sounds they shouldn't.
Those in the know say that we all have a level of "self-talk" (internal conversations with ourselves) going on inside our minds constantly. Most of the time we are not aware of it, the mind prattles on at such a speed that if we were to try to recall even our last two hours worth of self-talk, we would be hard pressed to do so. Ex: "Did I lock the car? what did I do with the keys what's the time? I shouldn't have had that last cup of coffee I feel queasy oh no I forgot the phone on the charger what if someone needs to get hold of me these shoes are too tight it's gonna be another hot day again why didn't she call last night? did I do something wrong here's the lift geez somebody forgot to change shirts etc.etc."
For those of us with busy minds (a lot of mental chatter), the absence of any exterior sounds can make our interior conversations/self-talk seem very loud and at times quite intrusive, yet, other times we may seek it (silence/stillness) in order to connect our feelings with the thoughts that may have prompted those feelings. Whether we have busy minds or not so busy minds, may I suggest that the world nowadays is much louder now then it was a hundred years ago.
There are more people, cars, machines, planes, trains, devices that makes sounds, etc., than ever before except for in a few areas of the planet. Have you ever heard someone say: "I can't hear my self think"? (Living in a world that provides us with a stream of constant input and stimuli, it can be quite tricky to be able to "hear" our thoughts and it may mean that we have to make a conscious effort to find a way to do so.) Even if we don't actually "hear" with our ears our thoughts, it can be difficult to achieve consistency in our thinking if we are surrounded by noise, irrespective of whether it is expected or unexpected. Ever tried to have a conversation with someone on the phone with music blaring next to you, or a child crying, or a dog barking, or someone on the jack hammer next to you?
Or trying to have a face-to-face conversation with someone who's phone keeps ringing and pinging all the time?
We are surrounded by a myriad of sounds, some we may categorize as needing our attention and others as not, but there are some sounds that we can't help but pay attention to: cries for help, the sound of something crashing/smashing, a baby crying, an animal yelping in pain, a phone ringing, a loud bang (thunder/lightning), a scream, etc. etc. ..... in short, sounds that evoke an emotional response in us.
Some of us may feel energized by being surrounded by all sorts of sounds, and some of us may feel overwhelmed, and then there are some of us who may be fortunate enough to have access to an "off" switch whenever needed.
If you happen to be one of us who at times find the world to darn loud and on top of that has a busy mind, may I suggest a few things that may be of use?
Awareness. Find a place/space that allows you to be able to notice(hear) your thoughts.
Visualize yourself as an observer observing your thoughts. What kind of thoughts are they? Are they predominately of a self/life-affirming/positive kind or self-chastising/negatively oriented kind?
Observing our thoughts objectively, as in a non-reactive way, allows us to entertain the possibility of discovering new perspectives, and this in turn may assist us to self-regulate the kinds of thoughts we pay attention to.
Somewhat strange yet profoundly effective when it comes to slowing down my busy mind so that I can fall asleep quite quickly is that in my case the remedy is to replace one sound (my internal chatter) for another: talk-back radio.
(Some people find listening to calming music helpful for their busy minds, some find listening to "nature" sounds helpful, even listening to the swishing sound of a fan works for some.)
As we carry on inventing more and more devices that creates noise, will there come a day when we will need to invent a device/app that creates stillness and silence?
The mind boggles.
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