Are you bored taking the same route to work or market? If yes, then its time to try a different, alternate route. You’ll see different scenery, landscape and geography. Maybe you’ll see interesting sights, people and traffic. The visual stimulants can engage your senses of sight, sound and maybe even smell as you pass by them.
Breathe slowly. Appreciate the different surroundings. Its wonderful to see so many beautiful sights. Some are man-made, while others are natural landscape and geography. You hear the sounds of traffic, and at traffic stops, you hear the sounds of engines running. If there are motor bikes with pillion riders around your transport vehicle, you might even hear them talking. You don’t need to absorb their conversational sounds. Let go and release the talk. You’re not involved with them.
When you look at a different scenery, it will trigger a memory or some reaction. Being aware of your surroundings and environment can awaken new or old thoughts. You may be surprised and become appreciative of the wonderful sights and sounds that assail your senses. You’ll feel refreshed and thankful for the wonders.
You’re free to travel, breathe in different air, receive stimulations of sight, smell, hearing, taste and feeling.
Many of us take a commute that lasts on average, 1 hour. Few have the fortune to be working in an office near to their home, where they can walk to work. When we need to use public transport, we need to catch it early, or risk being late to work. That would bring on stress as we fret about catching up on time while we are stuck in a traffic jam. We can’t always bottle up our stress. Sometimes, it escapes, as if we are taking out our frustration on another person. The negative thoughts and energy can seep out to affect other people.
What can we do during a long journey to work or any other destination? We can make use of the time to our positive benefit. Here are some ways:
- Look at the passing scenery. Praise and thank God for all the life forms.
- Bring a good book to read when the journey is not jerky. When the traffic is bad, rest your eyes and reflect on what good you can learn from the book. Keep a Book Review Notebook. Write notes on your opinions of the book.
- Listen to instrumental music on whatever device you’re habituated to using.
- Practice your breathing. Breathe slowly and calmly.
- Avoid thinking about anxieties as you’re stuck on a journey and there’s nothing you can do for your worries. This may raise your blood pressure and its bad for you. Whenever you feel anxious, breathe slowly and calmly. Its a good idea to always carry a bottle of water with you whenever you’re taking a trip. Drinking small sips of water can cool your body and help you to be calm.
- When you’re anxious during your journey, for whatever reason, pay attention to your environment. You see, and hear stimulations. When you focus on each stimulant, your attention is removed from your anxieties and this helps you. Listen to the sounds, appreciate them, or be compassionate to the originator of the sound. Understand them and share empathy with their situation. A feeling of love will flood your body and your former negative energy of anxiety is replaced by sweetness. This process can also be used for sleepless nights, when other people or the environment is noisy and disturbing your ability to fall asleep. Your frustrations at being disrupted can be replaced by sweet positive energy, when you think of understanding and compassion.
- While awake, your brain is continuously thinking and talking to you. You can think about problems which you know how to resolve in a few ways. You can make use of idle time in traveling, to think about things you know how to do.
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Sound can play a role in meditation
We each have our own liked sounds and hated sounds. The sounds we like can be used in meditation. If you feel negative, sad or anxious, you have your preferred sounds to cheer you up. Your preferred sounds are your medicine sounds. They stimulate you to feel energised. Since you know what type of sounds and music you like, you chose your own prescription of sounds.
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What is it like to live in a noisy neighborhood? Have you lived in a home which is constantly surrounded by sounds and noise? Not just white noise from the environment, but talking voices from neighbors. Many of us can not afford to live in bungalows or isolated houses surrounded by land which give a wide berth to separate from other neighbors’ houses. Many of us live in crowded estates, terrace houses, semi-detached houses, or stacked apartments. With only a brick wall separating us from the neighbors, it seems we are sharing our conversations with them.
This is what it is like, in this illustrated post .
What can be done to reduce noises from your environment? If your neighbors are listening in to stalk you by following your conversations, you might want to reduce the sounds from your house from going outside. When they can’t hear what is being talked about, they have nothing to follow and stalk you.
These measures can reduce noise from reaching you, or prevent your sounds from traveling out to reach others.
- Wear ear plugs
- Sound proof your home by hiring experts to fix sound absorbing panels on walls. This is expensive. I suggest you try the other ideas in this list before you do this.
- Use thick curtains, or even two layers of curtains
- Lay thick carpets in every room
- Hang thick rugs on walls
- Place big, leafy house plants in every room to absorb sound
- Install double glazed glass, also called dual paned glass, for your windows in rooms where you want to block sound. This is costly because of the material expense. I suggest you try the other ideas in this list before you do this.
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I have been living in a house at a corner, there is heavy construction for two new roads to join the existing roads. The roads are supposed to be ready in days so work has been sped up, day and night. The only consolation was quieter work at night, with heavy vehicles operating only during the day. It wasn’t as noisy at night. There were no hard helmet workers talking about me and I didn’t feel like I was stalked. I slept as usual.
However, when it came to my neighbors’ talking, it was an entirely different matter. I could hear them talking about me because they mentioned me by name and they made it a point to do so. I felt uneasy and my adrenalin level increased, rendering me unable to fall asleep. I have nothing going with them and I suspect it was intentional sabotage because two of them kept their conversation going for hours. I was so important to warrant a full prosecution and witness stand treatment. I couldn’t fall asleep because I was the subject of their conversation. If you don’t believe me, play out the scenario. Ask two people in your house to talk lies about you for at least two hours, just when you are lying in bed preparing to sleep. Note the time. Try to sleep. Now tell me if you can fall asleep peacefully.
Besides quietness from the environment, internal peace is also necessary for sleep. When you’re anxious, sad or constantly thinking about your past grievances, your stress hormone level would be high and that hinders you from sleeping.
Researchers have done a study on how noise affected sleep on a group of volunteers. They simulated a noisy environment by playing audio recordings of traffic and airplanes taking off and landing. Then they tested the study group’s blood for adrenalin and plasma. It was discovered that the group had a higher level of adrenalin and their blood plasma had an increase in a protein that fights infection. This was the body’s mechanism against stress caused by noise.
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We’ve been discussing about meditating with sounds like music and your environment’s natural sounds and produced noises. Now, we’ll talk about the other end of the line, that is, without sounds, or in the presence of silence. What do you think about when there is complete silence?
Are you comfortable with complete silence? It is not a time to think about your problems. Don’t beat yourself up by nagging on yourself. Relax. Breathe slowly. Listen to the sound of your breathing. Isn’t it wonderful? Air is the first and constant life savior that sustains you.
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