It's no secret that the modernization of our world causes a lot of pollution to this planet, air pollution, water pollution and land pollution. Some of you who already tried to watch the stars at night might have even witnessed light pollution. And there's one type of pollution which nobody is aware of. It is the one you can see can smell can taste and can feel it is the pollution of sound.
Today, many places sound like this. But believe it or not, back then they sounded like this.
We created all sorts of things which make us more effective and speed up the progress of humanity. cars, trains, planes, ships, phones, tools, machines, alarms, bells, the list goes on. To be honest, our modern world wouldn't even work without those sounds. Without them, we'd get up too late and miss important phone calls or get hit by a car. Throughout our history, sounds turned more and more into noise. But what is noise, one or many sounds, especially ones that are loud, unpleasant, or that cause disturbance, we hear millions of different sounds every single minute 1000s of layers on top of each other, so many that it can actually be quite overwhelming and stressful. But the thing is that we got used to this noise. We even became addicted to it in some way. We want to have the loudest headphones, the loudest speakers and go to the loudest concerts we relate to noise on a subjective level, which is conditioned by culture and noise is often an expression of power. I mean, that's the reason why an early war battles there were drummers who created a powerful atmosphere so that the soldiers could perform better. And it's the same reason why sports cars have louder engines, and why we feel so damn cool when we drive. The thing is that we not only became addicted to noise, but that we also try to avoid silence. Whenever we find ourselves in quiet situations, without the bustling sounds of the city, we tried to fill the void with other songs, we listened to music while we're on the train, put on the radio in the car and turn on some random TV show in the background. While we're at home. We tried to escape the silence because we aren't used to it. And it scares us in some way. I mean, we all know that situation. When you're out with your crush. Both of you have a great time. And suddenly nobody says anything. It is weird and you feel uncertain, because you don't know what's going to happen next. Is she bored? Doesn't she like me? Is she about to leave? Come on, say something. It's kind of hot in here, right? Silence is on the verge of extinction. That's what God and Hampton says his mission is to go to some of the world's most remote places in order to record natural and environmental sounds and to track the amount of sound pollution. I watched a couple of documentaries about him and his message really resonated with me. It's kind of crazy. But there are almost no places on earth left, where no noise of human machines can be heard for more than just 10 minutes.
The point is that the world in which we live became more and more noisy. It's absolutely crazy. Throughout the whole city, there are construction sites everywhere and there's no place where you can find any silence. Today the average noise level of 98 decibels exceeds the w h o value of 50 decibels allowed for residential areas, so it is almost twice as high as it should be. And with that comes a lot of consequences for us humans. It causes high stress levels, increased distraction, focus problems, sleep disturbances, tinnitus and hearing loss.
With the impact on wildlife, we don't even have to start as many animals mainly rely on their sense of hearing to detect predators or prey, their risk of death increases and some species have already become extinct because of it. To sum it up some pollution has a very harmful impact on our lives on this planet. We could all receive huge benefits. If we just had some more silence in our lives. It is important to point out that silence is not the absence of sound But the absence of noise, or as Gordon hempton puts it, silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything. As soon as there is no more noise, you finally hear everything that's happening around you, the wind blowing softly through the leaves, the birds singing out in the trees, and the flowing water of a river in the distance, you suddenly become present in the moment, and you're able to just be with yourself. While we get lost in the noise. We find ourselves in the silence. In this hectic world, we're so busy doing that we really forget just being and to be honest, it's in the being where we find ourselves and where we consciously create our lives. It is during those rare moments of silence where we finally take a step back from our everyday lives, and reevaluate what's important to us. And that's ultimately helps us to make healthy decisions. I believe that silence is actually very, very important and that we need more moments of silence in our lives. Well, you might think to yourself that you can just use noise cancelling headphones to drown out all the noise around you and to create silence. But if you think so you're wrong, because these headphones isolate you from every sound, and you just listen to another distraction like music or a podcast, so it misses the whole point of being present. So here are three tips on how you can actively create real moments of silence. The best way is to get more into nature. If you live in the countryside, maybe drive to a nearby forest, if you live in a city, just go to a park, just try to find a place with the least amount of noise, turn off your phone, put it in aeroplane mode, and just become aware of your surroundings. If you live in a busy city and you don't have the time to go to park, then just find the most quiet place available to you put on some headphones and listen to some natural sounds. Gordon Hampton, the guy I was talking about earlier, actually has some really, really good natural recordings of different environments, like a lake or a river or just a forest. And they're actually really, really good and they calm yourself down, you can find a link to his Spotify in the description below. Stop listening to music all the time. I myself used to listen to music 24 seven, when I got up when I showered when I was on a train. And while I was running seriously all the time. But I recently stopped taking my earphones with me when I walked through the city or when I went for a run and it turned out to be really liberating. Don't get me wrong, I love music, but listening to it all the time also isolates yourself and distracts you from the real world. Let silence happen. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with a moment of silence, you don't always need to fill that void with distractions or some stupid small talk. In fact, silence can even create some really intimate or even magical atmosphere between people, because you can finally see behind their facade. So the next time you find yourself in this kind of situation, don't get stressed about it, but just let it happen.
My main motivation to create this video was to raise awareness of the noise in our modern world and the lack of silence in our own lives. A few weeks ago, I never even heard of the term sound pollution. And noise was always just something which seemed normal to me. I mean, we're always just concerned about pollution as soon as we see it, smell it or feel it. But nobody ever thinks about the pollution we hear. Okay, sure, we complain when the neighbours party is too loud, or when there's a drone flying too close to us. But we're only concerned about the noise when it is caused by individuals. And we simply accepted everywhere else because I mean, we can change anything about it, right? Unfortunately, we can just shut down all of our machines, transport and propagation systems. So instead, I wanted to motivate you guys out there to just find your own moments of silence, to become more present and to connect with yourself because there still is some silence out there and I think it can have an incredible impact on our lives.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed this content and it would be awesome if you share it with some of your friends who could probably also make use of this.
Let us know in the comments what you think about this whole topic as we would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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