Sunday, September 16, 2018

A Listening Exercise


My husband bought us a white noise machine for Christmas. I have to admit I love it. It helps drown out the sound of his snoring. In the summer we also run a fan in the bedroom (mostly blowing on me, but hey I am over fifty). The night is filled with constant and steady noise. But one thing I have noticed missing this summer, on the nights when it is actually cool enough to shut off the a/c and open the windows, is the hooting of the owl that often roosts in the tree outside my bedroom window, and the coyote calls in the woods across the street.


We seem to live in cocoons of steady white noise no matter where we go these days: at home, at work, in the car. There is no space for silence. Even church is no longer a silent place, and when we do have exercises in moments of silence, we are very uncomfortable. We may not like the drums and electric guitar, but we would rather hear them than our own breathing, or even worse, the breathing of the person sitting next to us.


I stumbled upon a listening exercise recently from a blog post by Kim Manley Ort. She, in turn discovered the exercise in the online publication Emergence (that's how inspiring rabbit holes work).  Kim shared her experience with the exercise, listing her results from each step and I knew I had to give this a try too.


My hearing ability is still pretty good, having given up really loud music a long time ago. But hearing always lags way behind seeing for me, which is why I was excited to try this exercise, to explore creatively with a greatly underused sense.


I have only completed the first exercise so far. Probably because I got so caught up in writing it all down before I forgot.

Exercise One: Where is the place you spend the most time indoors? Go to this place. Sit or lay down in a comfortable position. Spend 10 minutes with your eyes closed, listening to all of the sounds around you, nearby and far away. What do you hear?



I tried this exercise twice. Once on a 90 degree day with the windows closed and the air-conditioning on. It was four o'clock in the afternoon, I had just spent two hours mowing our grass and had taken a cool shower before lying down on the porch on my nap couch.

What I heard: the air-conditioning running (the whole ten minutes), the refrigerator, occasional cars going by, the windows and siding creaking as they were warmed by the sun. I also noticed the rustle of my shorts on the couch as I tried to get comfortable. The interesting thing is, when there was a noise I didn't immediately recognize, I tried to hunt it down, climb inside that noise. Some time in the last few minutes I dozed off. I dreamed of a tea bowl filled with colorful, small rectangular pieces of tissue paper.


The second time I tried the exercise it was late morning on a pleasant 65 degree day and the windows were open. This time I heard: the fountain in the pond behind our house, peepers down by the pond, an airplane, a cardinal, a crow, lots of cars going by on the road, the whine of a garage truck engine. Personal noises like my stomach rumbling, swallowing, and the chime of the breathe app on my Apple watch. There were more noises, but I was less curious about them. I missed the tea bowl.


Exercise Two: Seek out a public or urban environment -- a local coffee shop, a busy street corner, your rooftop. Again, for 10 minutes, listen to the sounds around you. Try to take it all in, with equal value, without judgement. What do you notice?

Exercise Number Two may be a good excuse to try my hand at a Coffee Shop Chronicle again and see how that goes. The "without judgement" part may be hard.

If you try Exercise One, I would love to hear your results.

15 comments:

Carol said...

I have been on a workshop taught by Kim and I loved these exercises. haven’t been practicing recently - thanks for the reminder.

sarawelder said...

This is really interesting. I will try it. I love to lie in bed and listen to dramatic storms!

Lynne said...

Trying this exercise . . .
Without and with my hearing aids . . .
Sending your post on to a few friends too . . .
Thank you Sarah . . .

Sarah Huizenga said...

A thunderstorm would be a great time to try this. Thank you for the idea!

Sandra said...

I had about 'white noise' but never really looked into it. With your blog entry talking about it, I decided to go and listen! It sounds rather like the wind!
The two listening exercises you talk about sound interesting. I must try them. I have done meditation and that could be something similar. I like the reflective photo of you!

Cathy H. said...

I also read Kim's post and was intrigued by the exercises. I intended to try them, but I simply forgot - hey, I'm over 65 you know! Thanks for the reminder! I always hear the major sounds like planes, dogs, and birds, but I often overlook the quieter sounds like breathing and rustling clothes! I'll try to post something on my blog when I do the listening exercise.

Suburban Girl said...

Interesting. Exercise 1: Rain, bird chirping (wren), ceiling fan whirring, stomach gurgling, someone in the kitchen, rain turning to downpour, air conditioning kicking on, ringing in my ears (someone is talking about me) door opening, footsteps.

I love the sound of a hooting owl. We used to have that quite regularly. But the tall trees it liked have been disappearing due to storms or rot so it isn't around as much.

Carola Bartz said...

What an interesting exercise! I think I will try the first one even though I am aware that I will mainly hear my tinnitus which is much louder when it is silent. But there might be so many other noise that I won't notice it at all.

I feel very blessed that I live in a part of the world where the nights almost always are cool (even when the days are blistering hot) and we can sleep with the windows open. There are a lot of lovely sounds in the night - skunks and raccoons scratching through my garden, the call of a fox and a coyote, a Great Horned owl hooting and calls of the Western Screech owl. I love all of them.

When we moved to the States 17 years ago we noticed how loud this country is. Everything seems to be loud, there is constant noise (good thing we don't have air-conditioning, but then it's the heater in winter) but what really gets me are those darn leaf blowers. I crave for silence, but it's so hard to find it (and then there's the tinnitus!!!).

Karen Lakis said...

Interesting exercise. I was thinking of trying the public space one right now, but I’m feeling so very very (insert expletive here) annoyed, right now, over the fact that my train is ridiculously crowded, that I probably need to let some of this annoyance go, first. Way too may cell phone conversations... ugh I think I’ll enjoy trying the first exercise over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll hear lots of sounds of nature.

Michelle B said...

There are a lot of noises in our day. Right now I hear my kitchen faucet ever so slowly dripping, the refrigerator just turned on and the computer is humming. I didn't notice any of those noises before. What else am I missing in life... My favorite place to listen is at night on my screened-in-porch. I love the noises of the frogs and bugs, I feel like I am in a jungle sometimes. It is the perfect place to read. Great post. I will have to try listening in a public place the next time I am out.

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