Noise – as just about anything else – can be used as a distraction and escape.
It can be used to distract us from uncomfortable feelings and the stories attached to and often creating these feelings. (These stories make the physical sensations appear uncomfortable and have a meaning.)
Silence can seem threathening because it makes the noise of our mind more obvious. It highlights the discomfort of a mind struggling with itself.
I assume using noise as an escape is partly universal and partly a cultural phenomenon. In our culture, we have the technology to easily create a lot of sound. (Music, TV and movies which we can leave on even if we are not paying much attention to it, and equipment such as leaf blowers, power tools etc..)
I do this sometimes too. I sometimes listen to podcasts instead of being present and resting with uncomfortable sensations and the imagination associated with them.
The other side of this is that I am sometimes bothered by noise, and my mind wants to make noisy pepople “wrong”. And that’s for me to look more at.
Where is the threat in noise and noisy people? How does my mind create its experience of a threat in these things? What sensations and imaginations (images, words) are there?
What does noise say about me? (I am a victim, sensitive, different.) Can I find that person? How does my mind create its experience of such a person?
Where is the compulsion for silence? How does my mind create its experience of a compulsion? What sensations and imaginations are there, creating that apperance of a compulsion?
I had a conversation about this today, which was the seed of this post, and by coinciencee saw two articles on this topic:
Science says silence is much ore important for our brains than we thought – Lifehacker
Why silence is so good for your brain – Huffington Post
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Initial notes……
- noise as distraction
- cultural phenomenon, partly bc we have the technology to produce noise (music, TV, movies, equipment – leaf blowers, power tools etc.)
- distract from uncomfortable feeling + stories attached to it (making sensations appear uncomfortable)
- the other side: I am sometimes bothered by noise so want to make noisy people “wrong”