Creating a more compassionate society for all kindred spirits entails many perspectives and dimensions. Sound Health, creating a more compassionate world of peaceful, harmonious sound is one essential part of it. In this Ted.com talk connected with this post, they talk about 8 steps to sound health. I have a few thoughts based on my experiences. I once proposed a theory to friends of mine that it seems like the human species is evolving into at least two new subspecies. One I called homo technis. These are people who seem to be addicted to the motor vibrations of machinery. For instance, I see people who seemed to be totally attached to being on lawn movers, attached to leaf blowers, or any machine that has a certain noise vibration. Many of these people seem to be more agitated and easily angered. My suspicion is that their cells actually get addicted to the vibrations of the motor. One time when I was sharing this somewhat “crazy” theory of mine with some colleagues, one actually said that they actually felt calmer when on their riding lawn mower and that the vibration calmed them down. I found that quite amazing.
As cities and their surrounding suburbs get noisier with car alarms, honking horns, riding lawn mowers, leaf blowers, it seemed like people were getting more and more agitated. I find it ironic that so many of these machines come with headphones for the people utilizing them, but not for anyone else. How self centered is that, that the user of the machine cuts out the noise to them by using headphones, yet everyone else has to hear them. It would seem not unreasonable for the companies to be required to have some sort of noise cancellation equipment in the machines, just like noise cancellation headphones. It brought me great pleasure to hear these Ted talks addressing this exact issue.
The other subspecies may be homo natura, a natural human whose cellular structure resonates more with the vibrations of nature. Personally, I put myself in this category. I find myself yearning for the sounds and peace of nature. I immediately feel quieter and more peaceful when I am walking in nature and listening to the melodious sound of birdsongs, wind whispering through the trees, waves rhythmically lapping against the shoreline etc. Unfortunately, it seems like homo natura is becoming an endangered species, where being surrounded by the healing sounds of nature is becoming more challenging. I believe animals respond similarly, preferring the sounds of nature to the noises of motors. I have seen this in horse barns, animal hospitals etc.
My suggestion for animal lovers is to create healthy, peaceful sound environments for all animals. How can we recreate horse barns into more peaceful sound environments? Can we go back to sweeping? Can we create quieter machines? Can we be playing healing music and sounds that have been documented to be more calming to animals as well as ourselves. These are my initial thoughts on creating more compassionate healthy sound environments.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed these differences in the impact of various sounds? What have you done to create a healthier sound environment for you and your animals! May you create symphonies of silence in your life!