cathy33February 19
Notice the Sounds
Sounds are all around us. We often tune the sounds around us out including not listening to the person who is talking to us. We hear but we do not listen.
Soundscapes are the background music to our life. The energy of the different sounds affects your body even if you aren’t listening. Sounds around us alert us to our surrounds, to what is going on, to warn of danger,
Sound affects your body, you mind, your emotions, your energy. We think of how music affects and use it to help lift our spirits or our energy or get us to focus and concentrate. But everyday sounds around us affect us too.
Hearing is the auditory function of your ear. Your ear may be picking up the sound and processing it but you may not be listening to it. Hearing is just collecting the data.
Listening is paying attention to the sound(s) you are hearing and giving it attention and consideration. Listening is interpreting the data.
Do you mostly hear what is going on around you or are you listening?
Improving your listening will change the way you feel and how you experience what is going on around you.
Listen to the sounds of nature. In what may seem quiet at first can suddenly buzz alive with sound if you pay attention. Close your eyes and listen to the quiet until the sounds and melodies of nature begin to play its song.
What do you hear? Rustling leaves, birds chirping, a stream or the ocean, an insect buzzing? Listen deeper. Can you tell what kind of bird is chirping? Can you hear if it is just a couple of leaves or a tree of leaves?
If you are inside you can listen for the sounds inside as well. Maybe you hear the heater humming, or a clock ticking if you have one, or the dropping of ice in the freezer.
How do you react to the sounds you hear around you? How do different sounds affect you?
Let’s practice listening more deeply. Find a place to sit, relax, breath and close your eyes.
What are you hearing?
Are the sounds the same or different?
Is the sound loud or soft?
Is the sound connected or separated?
Is the sound high or low?
Which direction are the sounds coming from?
How often are you hearing the sound?
Does it change frequency or volume or does it stay about the same?
How can we move to that sound?
I wrote a book, Dancing on the Beach, on dancing to the sounds of the ocean the sounds that surround those sounds. The dance expresses the feelings and insights that arise from the sounds of the ocean.
If you can go out into nature, the beach, the woods, a park, listen to the sounds and then express those sounds through your body to the rhythm and the melody of you hear.
Listen to the sounds around you, listen to the music that nature and the environment around you create. Don’t just hear the sounds, really listen.
