This weekend’s challenge involves creating a quieter environment for yourself.
Do you keep a constant “soundtrack” to fill your space with music or talking? iTunes, internet radio, stereo, or the television talk show “keeping you company”? Do you turn them on the minute you wake up and come home? Do you plug in your earphones every time you walk out the door?
There’s no doubt that music can be very helpful at times to pep us up, but as an experiment, try turning it all off. Just for an hour.
How does it feel? Do you feel a little desperate for noise? What scares you about the silence?
Are you more focused on whatever you’re doing? Or, are you more aware of your attention wandering, instead of to the words of a song or the thoughts of a pundit, to thoughts or images of your own? What are those thoughts or images? If they’re fears, try writing them down to find out what it is that you’re trying to avoid thinking about. If they are fantasies, what is it your heart is asking for?
What does your environment sound like? Are there birds chirping, dogs barking? Are there people outside having fun? Do you want to go join them? Or are there people yelling? Can you send them peaceful poz vibes? What electrical sounds are filling your space? Can you unplug some of them, turn down the hum?
Speaking of humming, if you have the urge to provide your own soft soundtrack, go for it! If it’s a song with words, what are those words, or what is the title of the song? I find if a song appears in my head, it may carry a message for me. Is your mind or heart trying to tell you something? Are you allowing yourself some silence in your life to hear it?
Share your experience!
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D says:
Hoo-boy, that will be hard. But I think I will try it! I’ll let you know tomorrow how it worked out.
September 1, 2009, 4:51 pmPolly says:
How’d it go?
I was serenaded by a chainsaw this morning!
September 2, 2009, 8:39 pmD says:
It went… okay. I actually wasn’t trying to work, just making dinner. But the sound of my fan eventually faded into the background. I am the absolute worse for needing some sort of stimulation in the background when I’m working. Of course, that probably means I’m getting less done…. Sigh.
September 3, 2009, 9:26 amPolly says:
Hey, the last thing Be Softer is about is telling how you Should do anything or worrying about getting more done! This was only meant to be an experiment in awareness. I’m all for great tunes to keep you company!
September 3, 2009, 3:35 pmBrock says:
Niiiicce!
I really think that most people are afraid of silence. People these days are addicted to constantly consuming media. Advertising tells people this is such a normal thing. To sit in any public or private space with ears wired shut, head down, thumbs on a crackberry keypad, disconnected from any external reality but more importantly, any INTERNAL one.
It sometimes almost feels like there is a force in the culture that wants to prevent people from having an inner life, that might lead to asking bigger questions (questions like you’re asking here on this site.) and maybe a realization that you might not need their products after all. Or that there is much more to this thing called reality than that which 99.9% of people agree to allow themselves to experience.
I have to say that for the last bunch or years, it is rare when i have any music on at home or in the car, maybe once a week for an hour or so. And it just seems like TV get stupider by the day, with a few intelligent exceptions. I just cannot imagine going for a walk in the forest with anything plugged into my head. I’d be missing out on the conversations between the birds, the wind in the trees, the sound of life happening all around me.
So i dare everybody to go further than Polly suggested. Try it for an hour first, than for a WEEK.. Haaahh??!! Your life will be different.
September 4, 2009, 12:52 pmPolly says:
Wow, sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought! I’ll have to have you in as a guest poster – you’d have a very interesting perspective on sound!
September 5, 2009, 10:06 am