Hi,
I'm Jeremy.
I work in brain and spine surgery where sound is usually constant.
Voices,
Monitors,
Movement.
It's a background noise that never really fully turns off.
And over time,
It's just not the volume that becomes tiring.
It's the constant activity,
The constant interpretation of sound that the brain is having to do.
You see,
The brain's always asking,
Is this important?
Do I need to respond?
Should I be tracking this?
That continuous scanning,
It can create fatigue.
We might call this acoustic burnout.
So for this practice,
If you'd like,
Explore something different.
Not trying to remove sound,
Just changing how it's received.
And the thing we'll move through is this.
Not every sound requires your attention.
You might begin in a comfortable position,
Sitting or resting,
Standing or laying down.
Whatever feels supportive for you.
There's no right choice here.
And if you're sitting,
Feet on the floor supported or just arriving.
And if you'd like,
Maybe a little gentle uprightness in your spine.
Nothing rigid,
Just available,
Organized.
And you might notice your hands.
And rest them wherever they feel natural.
You might try palms down for a sense of grounding.
Palms up,
If you'd like a sense of openness.
You can lightly be touching your legs.
See,
The hands,
They have a lot of nerve information.
And the hands also take up a lot of real estate in the brain.
And constantly sending information back and forth.
Movement,
Feeling.
Movement down from the brain to your hand.
Feeling from your hand to your brain.
And we can use that input to help anchor attention when our environment feels busy.
Now make a small choice with your eyes.
And they might close.
They could remain softly open.
A softness in your gaze or closing your eyes can start to reduce visual demand.
It's giving the system a little less to process.
And if you'd like,
Start to take in some sounds around you.
You might begin to just notice what's here.
Sounds in the room.
Sounds far away.
Not labeling.
Just sound is sound.
You might tend to notice something here.
The brain tends to group sounds into meaning.
That's a voice.
That's a machine.
This is a conversation.
But beneath that,
If we zoom in,
There's just vibration,
Texture,
Rhythm,
Waves.
And you might let your attention shift slightly.
Shifting from what sounds mean.
Shifting into how the sounds feel.
Is it shark?
Or fuzzy?
Is it low?
Steady?
Is it near?
Is it far?
This changes how the brain processes input.
When sound becomes less about meaning and more about sensation,
It has the chance to become less demanding on the system.
And gently bring your attention back into your body.
If you'd like,
Start with your feet.
Contact with your ground.
Temperature.
Pressure.
Lack of pressure.
You see,
Sometimes pressure can create clarity.
And now take in the hands.
And they're resting.
Check in with your small choice from earlier.
Palms down.
Still grounding.
Palms up.
Exploring.
There could be a shift.
It could be the same.
You might bring yourself to your breath now.
Is it quiet?
Is it steady?
If it feels helpful,
You might let the exhale lengthen just a little,
Maybe 2%.
Nothing forced,
Just a little slower release.
Longer exhales can reduce how reactive the system feels to incoming input.
Now you might start to take in sounds.
You might allow the sound to move into the background,
Not pushing it away.
Just letting that be part of a wider field.
You might try to imagine the sounds and their shape.
Maybe a color.
Maybe a texture.
They're not landing.
They're not sticking.
They're just moving.
And if something captures your attention,
A voice,
A noise,
A shift,
You might notice it and then gently return.
Not to silence,
But to something more stable.
You might return to the weight of the body,
Or the contact of the hands,
Or the rhythm of the breath.
These are signals the brain can rely on.
They don't demand.
They don't compete.
They simply inform.
And over the next few breaths,
You might notice sound is still present,
But maybe your relationship to it is different.
Less hooked.
Less reactive.
More selective of input.
You might stay here for a few moments,
If you'd like,
Letting the sounds come and go.
Without needing to follow.
And then slowly widening,
Taking in the whole body.
The space around you.
Sounds as a part of that space,
Not the center of it.
A gentle inhale.
And a slightly longer exhale,
If you'd like.
And we're just noticing.
We're just feeling.
We're sensing the organization.
We're returning to the intention.
Not to remove sound,
But to change how it's received.
Not every sound requires your attention.
So when you notice fatigue building again,
A busy moment of your day,
In a relationship,
In the midst of a hard choice,
You might return.
You don't need to track everything.
You can let some of it pass.
And you can return to your hands.
And you can return to your breath.
And you can sense the ease.
When you return to the signal.
