Struggling with a noisy environment? Difficult to communicate? Losing focus? For one, get used to it. Work in such settings. Become less sensitive.
Don’t always count on those ear plugs or noise-cancelling headphones. Otherwise, you’ll grow fragile, and dependent on assistive aids. Enable your thoughts to proliferate irrespective of the surrounding chaos.
I can work almost anywhere of generally distributed Gaussian noise. Conversations, traffic, ambient sounds, tools, utensils are all fair game.
What I severely struggle with are the concentrated sources of audio: usually the propagandistic sort. News programming, media, unsolicited podcasts cause me severe allergies.
You might consider certain semblance of the above to an unsolicited, random guest being invited into your space. Yet I would prefer (and often welcome) a truly random guest from the street. With a random guest I’m likely to experience a distribution of topics - part benign, part intriguing, part inspiring, part complaints, part irrelevant, part bullshit.
Listening to media journalists, on the other hand, I’m virtually guaranteed irrelevant and bullshit. Environments with a loud television tuned to news I try to avoid without headphones or sufficient Gaussian noise to diffuse the source.
Alternatively, you can always just bail. Walk out. After all, the majority of landscape respects the standard Gaussian noise.
I’ve noted a curious observation with regard to propagandistic noise. The cheaper the establishment (ie restaurant), the more likely you’ll encounter such television monitors with sports programming (if fortunate) or, more likely the news. We pay premium for peace.
When not for the above, I’ve found few noise I could not digest with moderate effort. I’ve studied academic materials in ultra loud music dance parties. I’ve drafted outlines during festivals. I got accustomed to sleeping in disturbing settings of street traffic, noisy radiators, obnoxiously creaking floors, loud nightlife.
Maybe it did impact the long-term quality of my sleep. I’m no specialist.
If you struggle to communicate in the midst of noise, consider embracing a few hidden opportunities. Learn to harness more powerful vocals. Learn sign language, or the NATO phonetic alphabet. Read lips. See Mindhacker by Ron and Marty Hale-Evans to further explore these ideas. Perhaps meditate (that’s right).
Whatever you do, this is no cue to summon your smartphone. Resist the urge and remain present.
Questions, comments? Connect.