Noise

When I worked in manufacturing, it was standard practice to monitor noise levels and also to test the hearing of those that worked in high decibel areas. We were proactive in managing noise levels, mandating hearing protection and taking steps to avoid hearing loss.

Today we are all faced with incessant noise – perhaps not the high decibel, cover your ears, kind of noise. More of the ever present chatter – of the TV, radio, email, social media. We are bombarded with information 24/7. Some is wanted – like my Pandora radio station, or emails from clients, or Facebook posts from friends, or or RSS feeds that cause me to pause and think about things differently, or texts that transmit information in a few seconds rather than a few minutes. But there is a heck of a lot of clutter or “noise” that one must endure to find that which is valuable.

And even the wanted information can be overwhelming when there is no break. It is said that the beauty of music is not in the notes, but in the space between the notes. It helps us to remember that it is contrast that helps us define, differentiate and appreciate.

Yet today, due to our hyper-connectivity and self-imposed beliefs that we need to be connected around the clock, we are in danger of drowning in all this noise. Repeated and continual exposure both numbs us and wears on us. Without some time away from all this noise, it is difficult to sort out what really matters and then to make sense of it. We spend our energy trying to tame the in-box, or knowing that an hour away means that a stack of posts, tweets, texts, emails and other e-messages are rapidly piling up.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve not found the answer to this. So I’ll share five things I do to build some “silence” into my life – and ask you to chime in and share to help us all.

1. When going somewhere, I drive in total silence in the car for at least 30 minutes. No radio, no cell conversations – just me, the road and the wheel. And in that time I force myself to keenly observe what is happening outside my car, and just take it in – the sunrise, the clouds, the driver beside me bopping to the beat, the flowers, the cityscape.
2. I create some “off the grid” time. For me it is Sunday, when I close the office door and turn off the electronics.
3. I vow to put the cell phone away when I am in conversation with others. I noticed an annoying habit I had developed of checking my phone during lunch or dinner meetings. Auggghhh… and I hate it when others do that to me.
4. I turn off auto-notifications that beep, chirp or visually notify me of incoming messages unless I am truly in a situation that demands it.
5. I block 30 minutes every workday to meditate, read, write and be in quiet solitude.

So… help me and others. What do you do to create some “noise free” space in your life?