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The Need to Become Silent in a Noisy World
By Mike Moore
It is quite evident that we are living in one
terribly noisy world and it seems to be getting worse every day.
Everywhere we go we are accosted by loud, unwanted sound. When we
enter elevators, malls and restaurants we are engulfed by musak. I
recently had lunch at a popular restaurant and found the background
music so loud that it interfered with normal conversation and the
enjoyment of my lunch. When I asked the waitress if she could turn the
music off, or at least down, she said, " I don't think we
can." Surely we as a people are still in charge of volume
controls.
When you add lawnmowers, snow blowers, leaf blowers,
jack hammers, jet engines, transport trucks, and horns and buzzers of
all types and descriptions you have a wall of constant noise and
irritation. Even when watching a television program at a reasonable
volume level you are blown out of your chair when a commercial comes on
at the decibel level of a jet.
We seem to have created a cultural acceptance of our
noisy world in spite of the fact that it is making us ill physically and
psychologically. We can't seem to live without background sound. We have
friends who turn on the television the moment they awaken in the morning
and leave it on all day. The house is just too quiet if it isn't on.
Former highschool students of mine used to tell me that the first thing
they did on arriving home after school was turn on their CD player as
loudly as would be tolerated by their parents.
Cornell University recently conducted a study to
determine the impact of noise on employees in an open area office space
where people are constantly exposed to fax machines, telephones, office
chatter, shredding machines, etc. Test results revealed that workers in
an open area had high levels of adrenalin in their urine. Adrenalin is
released by the body when under stress. It prepares us for fight or
flight. When these employees were compared to those in self contained
office spaces the results were startling. People in a quiet, self
contained work area did not have the same high levels of adrenalin in
their urine. They were much more relaxed and less stressed.
A puzzle, demanding attention and concentration, was
given to both groups of employees. The open area group was found to be
less diligent in the solution of the puzzle becoming easily frustrated
and giving up much earlier than the group from the quiet office. The
study also found that workers from the quiet office slept better at
night, had better digestion, were much less irritable at home and felt
better at the end of their workday than employees from the open concept
office. Noise does seem to effect focus, productivity and general
physical and psychological well being. Noise tends to increase
stress levels which in turn can result in increased frustration, anger
and strained interpersonal relationships. We must begin to establish a
friendship with silence.
How to Make a Friend of Silence
While we have very little control over noise in the environment at
large, we do have control over our own private environment. This is
where we begin to cultivate a friendship with silence.
* Make a conscious commitment to the experience and appreciation
of silence.
* Go for a walk in nature. Let the silence soothe your spirit.
* When you are alone in your residence turn off all noise making
appliances. Begin with fifteen minutes of silence and gradually
increase the duration.
* Learn how to meditate and schedule a ten minute meditation period once
or twice a day. Gradually extend your meditation time.
* When driving to work turn off your car radio and drive in silence.
* Go camping for an night by yourself. Find a quiet campground where
they don't allow people to blast their music without consideration for
others. I usually go solo camping for one week each year to be alone and
silent in the outdoors. It has become something I eagerly look forward
to.
* Drive to a lake at sunset and rent a canoe. Paddle slowly along the
shoreline observing the silent sights and the gentle sounds of nature as
the sun sets and darkness approaches.
* In silence listen to your breathing. Get a sense of the silent
rhythm of life.
* Just before retiring go outside and look up at the night sky. You will
soon sense another universal rhythm so unfamiliar to many.
Let the night sky and the darkness embrace you and calm you as you
prepare for a night's rest.
* When you read a book, do so in silence. Many of us read to music or
during television commercials. Try silence. You'll grow to love it.
Soon you will begin to cherish the periods of silence
you have built into your day and long for more. You will quickly
discover that you are becoming more relaxed and less tense even in
the midst of our noisy world. You will have made an invaluable new
friend in silence, a friend which can comfort, heal and soothe your
spirit. What a gift you will have given yourself.
Be still and know the restorative power of silence.
Mike Moore is an international speaker and writer on human potential,
motivation and humour. You can check out his motivational books, tapes,
special reports and manuals at http://www.motivationalplus.com/store.html
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