Quiet UK

Tag: mindfulness

  • Hearing therapy and what it’s taught me about tinnitus

    Hearing therapy and what it’s taught me about tinnitus

    Walking down a grey corridor in an unloved NHS community hospital, the curled edges of leaflets about coping with old age poking out of wire stands, I’m feeling a bit suspicious about how hearing therapy could help me. I enter a large room, peeling magnolia paint, tiny cell-like window, two chairs in the middle of the room. And there sat on one of the chairs my therapist. A vision of serenity with a genuine smile, she beckons me to the chair opposite hers.

    The last time I had therapy was with a slightly intense therapist, who stared too much and in one session had a giant bogey sticking out of his nose – I didn’t go back. That was for grief and anxiety. I really didn’t know what to expect from therapy for my ears!

    Tinnitus, from a medical point of view, really sucks. For a start it’s difficult (and subjective) to explain what you’re hearing – how loud is loud, what does the ringing sound like? Next, there’s little understanding of tinnitus and it’s causes, mainly because it’s not very sexy from a medical research funding point of view! You also can’t measure tinnitus – there’s no version of a thermometer or stethoscope that can give your doctor numbers to put on a chart or table. Despite this, there are things you can do to help manage your tinnitus. Such as hearing therapy…

    That first session I was asked a lot of questions – how, what, when, where my tinnitus affected me and set a couple of tasks – keep a diary of the sounds and think about what stress relieving activities I could incorporate into my life. I left feeling more positive, tinnitus still there, but I’d been able to ask the questions that had been worrying me: will it get worse, will it go away, will it spread to my other ear (I have unilateral tinnitus in my left ear). The therapist had answered the questions she could and been honest about the ones that she couldn’t. I trusted her and agreed to see her again the following month.

    Over the next year or so, I went back every few months. We discussed how I was getting on, celebrated breakthroughs such as a reduction in tinnitus perception, set objectives and agreed how much I should push myself. We also discussed sharing my needs with my family and friends – when my tinnitus is bad I get a throbbing pain in my ear, temporary reduction in hearing and inability to cope with more than one sound. After one session I went home and explained to my partner how he needed to say my name when talking to me to get my attention and that sometimes when driving I can’t cope with sound from the radio and also having a conversation. It’s little things, but they made a massive difference to how I coped with tinnitus and everyday stress. And the world was good for about a year.

    Then a few months ago I realised my tinnitus was back, really back, possibly worse than before. I didn’t panic, I knew it was stress-related – lockdown with noisy neighbours, cancelling the trip of a lifetime and keeping a husband with a heart condition safe had taken its toll. Thankfully, we’d left my therapy options open. One quick call and I had an appointment with my therapist – over the phone of course.

    My tinnitus hasn’t instantly got better, but the phone session gave me an opportunity to discuss what was going on in my world. I could rant about the noise from my neighbours and rather than feeling selfish, I was given support, told I wasn’t on my own in my (slightly/ very murderous) feelings about the people living opposite and given some new ideas to help calm the ringing in my ears. I even joined the National Trust afterwards so I could plan some quiet ‘me time’ at some of the local sites.

    What is hearing therapy?

    Hearing Therapy is a service which can provide information, counselling and practical assistance for people experiencing issues with hearing loss, central processing disorders, tinnitus and hyperacusis.

    The service uses the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) approach which includes:

    • education
    • identifying triggers
    • implementing mindfulness-based stress reduction activities

    What has hearing therapy done for me?

    • Answered the worrying questions I had about my condition – or at least provided the information I needed to process my concerns
    • Helped me understand my condition
    • Helped me explore ways to reduce stress and manage my tinnitus
    • Helped to reduce my perception of my tinnitus – it’s always there, probably not going to go anywhere, but most of the time my brain ignores it
    • Showed me that the ‘me’ time I needed to help reduce stress is not selfish
    • Worked with my introvert personality to find the best coping methods and stress-reduction activities
    • Given me the words and concepts to discuss my condition with my partner, family and friends so they can better understand it and my needs.

    Hearing therapy is not a quick solution. You need to put in the time and effort to help yourself. Having an appointment in my diary meant that I had focus on the homework I’d been set – I’m someone who needs deadlines so this this was important for me.

    If you think hearing therapy could help you, please get in touch with your GP or medical provider. From my initial suspicions about any kind of therapy, I am now so grateful for the time I had talking through, addressing and learning to cope with my tinnitus.

    Find support

    More about tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) from the British Tinnitus Association.

    If you need help or support with your tinnitus the British Tinnitus Association support line is available Mon-Fri 9-5 on 0800 018 0527. If you feel like you can’t cope and need help outside of these times the Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.

    Here’s a link to the Bath and North East Somerset Community Health and Care Services hearing therapy service that I used. This is a free service. A quick look at other NHS trusts shows similar services, but please check with your GP. For non-UK countries please contact your local medical provider.

  • How to find quiet in an open plan office

    How to find quiet in an open plan office

    Buzz, bang, beep, cackle, holler, door screeching slowly closed. These are just some of the noises that welcome those of us that work in open plan offices. After several years of suffering in my own open-plan-noise-hell I’ve discovered there are plenty of things you can do to create quiet in even the most gossip-ridden, Tuesday-fire-alarm-testing, two-hour-speaker-phone-meeting office environment.

    Several years ago, I started working in my first open plan office. I wasn’t a big fan, but we had big windows looking out on to trees and green fields and large desks where we could create our own space. Then the company decided to fit more and more people into the same tiny area. Suddenly we went from two people on a desk to three, then four. I went from having several feet between me and my colleague to practically sitting on each other’s laps. It didn’t help that the intern who sat next to me had no concept of personal space, or indeed a volume button.

    As the noise went up, my stress levels went up and my productivity went down. Open plan offices done properly can improve collaboration, personal connections and create opportunities for people from different departments to mix and perhaps come up with the next big idea. However, they can still be loud and distracting and the background noise can reduce cognitive ability leading to reduced productivity.

    In my case they can also induce a slight murderous rage when the man-spreading senior manager next to me used to take hour long calls at his desk and clearly had no concept of how phones worked or he wouldn’t have been shouting down the receiver.

    But don’t worry there are plenty of ways to reduce the amount of noise in these notorious sound generating environments?

    What can you do to reduce noise levels in open plan offices?

    A lot of the noise in your office is probably out of your control, but here are a few things that can help create some quiet space for you:

    • Wear standard or noise cancelling earphones. This way you can listen to the sounds you want to. Just make sure they’re not turned up too loud, so you don’t contribute to the problem.
    • Lead by example
      • turn off unnecessary (all in my opinion) notifications on digital devices
      • have conversations away from other people’s desks
      • don’t talk over desks – it’s tempting if you have desk dividers to pop your head over and have a quick catch up with a colleague, but you won’t be the only people hearing the conversation.
    • Explore your office – find the quiet spaces that others haven’t discovered. I found so many ‘secret’ cubbyholes where I could find space and quiet when I needed it. Tip: the canteen outside of peak times can be an unlikely haven.
    • Don’t let things get really bad. Talk to your manager. A simple desk move might solve the problem. Don’t let things build up and bubble over. Address them before they have a negative impact on your health and mental wellbeing. Your manager might not even realise there is a problem. Go to them with some solutions and see how you can solve the problem together.
    • A personal one. At Christmas don’t bring in a musical clock that every hour places a tinny, high-pitched ‘version’ of Jingle Bells. You know who are, Lou!

    Office managers these ones are for you:

    • Create quiet spaces where people can focus on their work away from distractions.
    • Conversely you could create a noisy area – somewhere for huddles, lunch breaks, team training sessions to take place – just make sure it’s not next to the quiet space.
    • Assign quiet times – perhaps post lunch when everyone is in a bit of a lull anyway.
    • Introduce a visual key system so people can show if they are willing to be interrupted. We placed coloured cards on the top of our screens – green for yes, I’m free and happy to speak and red for I’m focussing on a task and do not want to be interrupted. Or there’s the earbud code – one in for happy to be spoken to, two in for leave me alone.
    • Encourage staff to work from home. Yes, I know many companies are encouraging/ forcing workers back to our offices but one or two days a week at home can make a massive difference to the quality of life and productivity of an employee who prefers it quiet.
    • No speakerphone conversations in the office – hearing one voice is bad enough!
    • And leading on from this – no video calls at desks. Encourage everyone to treat video calls as a meeting and go to a designated meeting space.
    • Move noise generating equipment away from desks and quiet areas. It might be a noisy machine, or it could be people congregating and chatting at the printer.
    • Finally, listen to colleagues who say they are struggling with noise. Work together to see how things can change. They might not be the only ones who are having a bad time. Simple changes can make a world of difference to their health and mental wellbeing and your business productivity.

    There are also myriad ways of reducing the sound by, for example, changing the layout, adding acoustic panels and planting living walls. These maybe suitable for your business or not but a quick google brings up loads of options in varying price ranges.

    I’d love to know how other people cope with open plan offices – from both a personal and business perspective. Keeping everyone happy is not easy but as we spend so much of our time at work, we need to learn compassion and respect for our colleagues. I don’t want to silence the loud voices, but equally they shouldn’t be the only voices heard.

  • Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Notifications and alarms – why it’s time to silence your digital world

    Back in the late 1980s, my Nan bought a Grandfather clock for my Grandad. And my grandad was delighted. He set it up and we all waited patiently for the next hour to arrive. Ding-dong-ding-dong it went. We all clapped enthusiastically. Fast-forward a couple of days and the once novel chimes were driving us to distraction. Another couple of days and the bells were silenced, only to be allowed to ring once a year on New Year’s Eve. We didn’t need to be alerted to every passing hour of our lives.

    More recently, at a family event, I found a rather more modern technology was driving me to distraction. Ding went my Nan’s iPad. Boing went my mother’s phone. Yet another phone announced ‘your son is texting you’ to the whole room. It took a lot of willpower, and a desire to remain on the Christmas present list, not to grab their devices and lob them out the window. And these digital noise offenders weren’t my younger cousins or their kids, these were the boomers and early-born Gen Xers. They seem to have missed the memo on the effects of app notifications and allowing your digital devices to infiltrate every waking moment.

    And I wouldn’t mind if they got up and answered the alert. Nope, my Nan’s iPad continued to ‘ding’ away in the corner, each ‘ding’ seemingly getting louder each time it was ignored. She’d acknowledge each ‘ding’ by stopping the conversation, saying ‘oh that’s an email’ before going back to whatever she was talking about.

    Just turn them off

    Just to clarify — turn off your notifications, not your grandparents.

    I used to be an early adopter of various devices but then I got bored with the faff of setting them up, not to mention the cost. My Samsung phone is eight years old and the phone company have given up sending me updates on the latest phone that I ‘really must have’. And in the eight years I’ve had the phone the only sound it has ever made is ‘ring’. I will admit that at one point in the early 00s my Nokia used to beep out the theme tune to Fraggle Rock, but I have learned my lesson.

    The first thing I do whenever something digital comes in the house is turn off all the beeps, dings, bleeps etc. With the exception of my sodding attention-seeking washing machine which I can’t silence — AEG I’m looking at you.

    And it’s worth the ten minutes of my life it takes to do this — I know it’s a foreign concept to some but I believe if something is really that urgent the person will call me.

    Pay attention

    Those little dings, bings and bleeps do nothing but seek and divert our attention. Some studies suggest that app notifications are to blame for our lack of concentration. Others say that they are a symptom of a society that expects us to be contactable (by work or family and friends) at all times which has a knock on effect on our health and wellbeing. Whichever it is, turning off your notifications solves both problems.

    A study by Deloitte showed that the average American household has 25 connected devices — that’s a lot of things that go beep. And according to RescueTime we pick up our phones an average of 58 times a day — often in response to a notification. And once you’re on your phone you may as well check the news or the latest TikTok trend. Now, what was I doing again?

    Plus, if like me, you’re someone with hyperacusis (noise sensitivity) the sounds can create anxiety and a reduction in general wellbeing. Add in misophonia (a decreased tolerance to specific sounds) and I’ll be the person sitting next to you on the train plotting increasingly vindictive ways to kill you while your phone beeps away, letting you know there’s a photo of your cousin’s kid playing football on WhatsApp. Think about those around you — an app notification that makes a sound is not only notifying you.

    I’m focussing on the sounds devices make here because I write about sound and hearing health. But it doesn’t have to be sound — a red dot or flashing light can be equally distracting — if a little less annoying to those around you.

    I’m not dissing tech and social media. After I’ve pressed publish on this story I’ll head over to Bluesky to share it. But as much as I’d like you to read this story, it will never be that important that your device has to alert you to its presence.

  • Why we need to listen more

    Why we need to listen more

    Nine years ago, my tinnitus started. Silence was a thing of the past. Then over the last few years, I become more and more sensitive to and annoyed by noise. The quietest woof of a dog in the distance was enough to kick my fight or flight response into action. Every beep, bang or bark was an intrusion in my hearing space. At that point I hadn’t accepted that silence, due to tinnitus was a thing of the past.

    The Covid lockdowns made things worse. Some noise went away for a while – the bypass near our house was much quieter for a few months. But this was replaced by other humanmade noises – drilling, mowing lawns, and don’t get me started on the pointlessness of leaf blowers. There was an increase in people buying dogs (for company and as an excuse to leave the house more often). More dogs, more barking, more noise. The constant doses of cortisol hitting my system were leaving me exhausted, and a bit of a cow to live with, especially when I shouted out the window at the early morning dog walkers.

    Listen more

    What would happen if I listened more? I decided to stop fightling the noise and take control of the sounds I wanted to hear, and learn to adapt to or find ways to remove the noise that I didn’t.

    Sound is something we want to hear, something that pleases us.
    Noise is an unwanted sound, often humanmade.

    For example: at the moment I’m stood in front of my window, it’s a beautiful spring morning, the birds are flirting with each other and busying themselves making nests. This is a good sound. In the near distance, there’s a delivery vehicle announcing to the world with eardrum-pummelling squeals, that it is reversing, this is a bad sound. Before, this would have led me to don my noise-cancelling headphones, removing both the good and bad sounds. No more birdsong!

    So, if I want the birdsong in my life what can I do? Well now, I take a little more time and care when I’m listening. I can rationalise that the irritating noise will soon go away, and the birds will continue with their tunes (well, at least most of the time I can, it’s a work-in-progress). I try and tune into the sounds I want to, and let them flow over the noise, a DPD van reversing is little competition for a wren at full blast. This takes some time and practice, a bit like meditation, but it’s worth it, even if you only manage a few minutes at a time to start with.

    I believe we should be more active listeners to the world around us, rather than just accepting the noise. And this is especially important now while the world is a bit quieter and we can hear the sounds we want to hear. Noise pollution is not only stressful, but it also shortens life expectancy. A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that in Western Europe alone, at least 1.6 million healthy years of life are lost to noise pollution.

    There are some noises that I’m working to appreciate, rather than remove. The sound of people gathered in the park outside, chattering away, is something that, especially at the moment, should be cherished.

    Some noises are hard to appreciate or remove. Other than stealing all my neighbours DIY tools, there’s little I can do to silence that noise – and neither should I, they have a right to look after their property. I can however remove myself from the noise by going for a walk. I can also lead by example – this year we’re replacing our noisy electric lawnmower with a quieter cylinder one.

    For bigger noises, think planes, trains and automobiles, there are various groups you can join or support who are campaigning to either silence or quieten these intrusions. For example, HACAN campaign for those affected by the noise from planes taking off and landing at Heathrow.

    And it’s not all birdsong and wind rustling through the trees for me. There are still many times when the noise gets to me and I feel my anxiety rising. I’m not sure I’ll ever reach a sound nirvana. But for the sake of my health, and those who just want to walk their dogs at 6 am, I’m trying to accept the noises I can’t change, let the sounds I want to hear into my life, and work with others to remove or reduce the ones that are doing us physical and mental harm.

    But for now, why not open a window and have a listen to what is going on in the world around you. Sounds are subjective, ones that make me happy might make your teeth itch, and vice versa. So, try listening to the ones that make you smile, relax or feel part of nature. Those are the ones we need to amplify and appreciate before they’re buried in a world of noise.

    Originally published on Quest for Quiet (7 March 2021).

  • Swimming in silence

    Swimming in silence

    If you search ‘tinnitus swimming’ all the results talk about the negatives – swimmer’s ear being the main one, and how to prevent it. But for now, let’s take a look at the positives.

    My tinnitus is a barometer for my stress and anxiety levels. At the moment, after a brush with Covid, a nasty horsefly bite and some stressful deadlines at work my T is at peak attention-seeking. Swimming is my ultimate relaxant – although it has to be outdoors, I find indoor pools noisy and a bit grim (think used plasters floating by at eye level!). And it has to be skins, no neoprene here, although a bobble hat is essential and the absolute in outdoor swimming chic

    Outdoor swimming can also be a massive challenge. When I first started outdoor swimming in 2019, I was not a confident swimmer. The thought of not being able to put my feet down or the extremes of swimming in the winter took me so far out of my comfort zone, I’m not sure how I ever got back in the water, let alone fell in love with it. But fall in love I did, to the point I now swim in an old quarry that is 36 metres deep, with a 6m drop as soon as you kick off – no chance of putting my feet down. And this was the beginning of ‘silencing’ my tinnitus because the challenges meant I had something else to focus on.

    Now I find outdoor swimming the most relaxing thing in the world. The moment I step into the water, everything else in the world disappears. My mind is either silenced and I just bob along, chatting with the cormorants, great crested grebes and kingfishers, or it awakens my creativity – many stories have been conceived and plotted in the silky ripples of a lake. With my stressors removed, my tinnitus no longer has a place in my consciousness.

    Swimming alternatives

    BUt what happens when I can’t go for a swim? Instead, I have cold showers, apologies to my neighbours who have to put up with the regular shrieks, followed by giggles and laughter. This has something of a dampening effect, but it is shorter-lived than the effects of swimming.

    Go back to 2016 when my tinnitus started and I never would have said that swimming would be my go-to thing for silencing the ringing. And I guess that’s kind of the point. You don’t know if something’s going to work for you until you try it. So, please try not let tinnitus get you down. Meditation is often cited as something to try, but it might not work for you – it doesn’t work for me. But what about knitting, or gardening or mountain climbing? I find the best way to silence my T is to do an activity where my brain has to concentrate, so it doesn’t have time to become obsessed with the ringing, music or humming.

    I’d love to know what works (or doesn’t work) for you. Perhaps something you never expected to work has become your go-to way of distracting your brain. Feel free to share in the comments below.

    Further info

    If you are interested in outdoor/ wild/ cold water swimming please check out Outdoor Swimmer’s guide to swimming safely.

    If you need help or support with your tinnitus the British Tinnitus Association support line is available Mon-Fri 9-5 on 0800 018 0527. If you feel like you can’t cope and need help outside of these times the Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.

    This post was originally posted on Quest for Quiet (10 Feb 2021).

  • There’s no such thing as silence

    There’s no such thing as silence

    For the last few years, I’ve been searching for silence, often with less than perfect outcomes. I’ve become increasingly anxious with all the manmade sounds that surround me and felt a need to immerse myself in a silent world. But, then I realised unless I go and live in an anechoic chamber, there’s no such thing as silence. There’s always something there in the background, raising its hand, trying to make itself heard. And more often than not, that something is nature.

    What we mean when we say silence is a lack of manmade sounds. The screeching sound reversing bin lorries make, the drilling and hammering of a nation obsessed with DIY (more so since COVID), the monotonous rumble of traffic on the ring road. These sounds are, unfortunately, the soundtrack to our lives.

    And these manmade sounds are making us ill. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that noise pollution is the second biggest threat to health, after air pollution. And noise annoyance has been associated with a two-fold increase in depression and anxiety.

    But natural sounds are good for us, especially those of us with high-stress levels. They can also improve worker productivity, focus and mood. So, rather than searching in vain for silence, I should be looking for places that are overflowing with birdsong, waterfalls and rustling leaves.

    Let nature sing

    So, what should we do if all this manmade noise is getting us down? I’ve decided to surround myself with natural sound whenever I can, sometimes I stand in a field and just listen, other times I use nature as a barrier to other sounds. At the moment I’m listening to the springtime cacophony of horny birds, each one trying to prove they are the fittest by singing the loudest. It might not be the most soothing of natural sounds. I haven’t seen ‘Randy Pigeon’ on the Headspace list of sounds to relax to. But it doesn’t raise my heart rate or demand my attention as manmade noises often do. It’s just there, outside my window, in the background, doing its thing and letting me do mine.

    I’d love to be able to stand on a beach and submit to the rumbling waves and whirling winds, but current circumstances prohibit me from doing that. So, instead, I’ve been looking for local alternatives or natural soundscape recordings.

    Recently, I’ve become obsessed with Radio Lento, a podcast of natural sounds from around the UK. Launched in 2020, the podcast captures immersive soundscapes from deep inside forests to the shoreline of beaches. Interestingly they don’t edit out the manmade sounds. You can be listening to a soothing, trickling brook and then a car will drive by or a plane will interrupt the buzzing insects in the woods. And I quite like this. It reminds me that quiet is rarely perfect. According to Gordon Hempton, the Sound Tracker, there are only a handful of truly quiet places left on the planet — it’s unlikely one of them is my suburban back garden! Unless I can convince the Olympic National Park to let me move in, I’m going to have to accept some manmade sounds, and the Radio Lento recordings are a gentle way to let both worlds mingle without the human world taking over.

    Accepting that silence is impossible wasn’t easy. My brain craved nothingness. But surrounding myself with natural sounds has provided the quiet I needed. Natural sounds dowse my mind in calmness, allow it to just be, rather than racing away with every siren, beep and buzz. So, why not give it a try — next time you feel overwhelmed by the sounds of humanity, turn on some nature, go stand by a stream or lie down under a tree in a park. Let nature be your soundtrack to life.