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Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

nautil.us

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Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#61

Post by manmal »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #46

In a remote and quiet place, Vikman says, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t audible in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, be able to talk with yourself.” I was a homemaker for years. A lot of housework is fairly mindless, allowing for uninterrupted deep thought because most folks will not bother you while you are doing laundry. The…

I have a slightly different perspective on thoughts. To me, they are by-products of what’s going on in the very vast sub conscious mind, and an indicator of what is going on down there. They are information, but not a means to an end. It’s like listening to noises at night - it can be beautiful at times, but at some time I just want to concentrate on other things that matter to me. I find them too volatile to provide deep self reflection on their own (so just listening to thoughts is not of much use), and it’s hard to have an inner dialogue because auditive memory is not available, so you get stuck debating with yourself in circles. (Might be just me, of course)

When I work, or talk to other people, I don’t hear any thoughts, and I think this is because the speech-building parts of the brain are preoccupied with the task at hand.

And if I talk to people, I often hear myself saying things I had not thought of before. I’m not in therapy, but I’m sure it would work way better for me than just thinking. Real talk definitely beats thoughts by a wide margin in clarity and expressiveness.

I definitely need silence for downtime though, I love staying up late alone for that reason.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#62

Post by icantdrive55 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #46

In a remote and quiet place, Vikman says, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t audible in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, be able to talk with yourself.” I was a homemaker for years. A lot of housework is fairly mindless, allowing for uninterrupted deep thought because most folks will not bother you while you are doing laundry. The…

You have probally been told this, but you are a good writer.

You might have a book, or two in you? If that interests you?

I'm interested in the six years living in a tent, and what honestly led up to that.

On a personal note, I need to have structured sound (music, tv, radio, etc.) around me at all times.

My mind just wanders to the negative if there's no noise. Car noise, city noise, people talking is just irritating, but I just seem to need that radio on.

I'm not schizophrenic, but do have some anexiety disorder.

Anywho--I'm not giving advice about a book, but your posts do stand out. I didn't realize until today.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#63

Post by spike021 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #46

In a remote and quiet place, Vikman says, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t audible in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, be able to talk with yourself.” I was a homemaker for years. A lot of housework is fairly mindless, allowing for uninterrupted deep thought because most folks will not bother you while you are doing laundry. The…

I think I'd agree, in part at least.

It's great being able to get outside in the relative quiet. Maybe a walk at the beach, or in a forest, or on a hike in the hills. Maybe even a drive if you enjoy drives out of the city. Etc.

There isn't anything quite like it. But unfortunately many people seem to forget that we are able to do this.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#64

Post by Swizec »

dwringer wrote: post #14
Mononokay wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be far off base here, but I wonder if this could be tied to why humans are generally considered more capable of learning in adolescence - the older someone gets, the more noise they find around them. Lecturers' voices, phones ringing, music, cars and the like are all things you hear progressively more after age 3 or so.

There's a (loosely) related thread under today's article about John von Neumann's assistant[1] about von Neumann's alleged preference for working with loud music playing (something I've seen corroborated in places like Turing's Cathedral , where it was also mentioned that he liked working with noise in general; to what degree any specific music was preferable, I can't discern, though that book mentioned loud marches)…

I'm nowhere near as cool as Von Neumann, but I find that loud noisy music helps me work. The noisier the better. It helps to drown out background sounds that catch the attention.

If you hear a door creak or a person speak, that's attention grabbing. Are they speaking to me? Is someone looking for me? Can I add to the conversation?

But with noise you are isolated. The attention grabbing sounds don't come through.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#65

Post by m_fayer »

tpallarino wrote: post #57

Attention has now been made a commodity, so good luck finding peace and quiet if you don't have the money to buy it

I feel like this can't be said enough. Various kinds of minimalism, which are really just different ways of being left in peace, are now pleasures that are only reachable by the privileged classes. So of course these pleasures find a lot of enthusiasm here. Not that I'm any less enthusiastic than most here, but we shouldn't forget that out industry contains some of the worst offenders when it comes to distraction and interruption.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#66

Post by spike021 »

cyphar wrote: post #15
jimmies wrote: post #11

American culture of making noise and hyping is tiring and annoying at times. Sports events are the most prominent example. Going to popular sports matches in the US: football, ice hockey, basketball, etc. and you'll be bombarded with ads, noise, hype from the loudspeakers and flashing lights from the huge screens -- every single second you're there. When you watch the Super Bowl, you watch more ads than you watch the…

One thing I didn't understand when I visited the US is that people applaud in American cinemas. I don't understand why that's seen as appropriate.

Not everyone in the US does this. I don't usually. It's odd, honestly, because it seems intended to honor the people who produced the film.. but they aren't there to hear or appreciate it. So.. Not sure?

If the idea is just theatergoers feeling togetherness at experiencing the film with each other, then maybe it makes sense? Yet, it's quite different.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#67

Post by plouffy »

arcticfox wrote: post #44
throwawaymsft wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an example of what a soccer game would look like if commented the usual way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJn5XxWg9U

This is pretty hilarious, but as a fan of both American football and soccer, basically complete nonsense. Soccer commentary is pretty much just as pointless anyways, maybe even more so, since usually the analysis is a lot more ambiguous.

I don't think the point of the video is suggesting that soccer commentary is better. It's simply pointing to the reality of watching NFL sport commentary where we're constantly bombarded with stats, and graphics.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#68

Post by plouffy »

brandonmenc wrote: post #56
jimmies wrote: post #11

American culture of making noise and hyping is tiring and annoying at times. Sports events are the most prominent example. Going to popular sports matches in the US: football, ice hockey, basketball, etc. and you'll be bombarded with ads, noise, hype from the loudspeakers and flashing lights from the huge screens -- every single second you're there. When you watch the Super Bowl, you watch more ads than you watch the…

Soccer is the most boring sport to watch unless you're hammered or rioting. It would be nice if they had some screens up to distract the fans.

I would argue that baseball, nascar or test series cricket might be more boring sober.

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#69

Post by sien »

plouffy wrote: post #68
brandonmenc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soccer is the most boring sport to watch unless you're hammered or rioting. It would be nice if they had some screens up to distract the fans.

I would argue that baseball, nascar or test series cricket might be more boring sober.

George Bernard Shaw —

'The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity. '

Re: Peace and quiet is all about the noise in your head

#70

Post by yesenadam »

bproven wrote: post #51
DoreenMichele wrote: post #46

In a remote and quiet place, Vikman says, she discovers thoughts and feelings that aren’t audible in her busy daily life. “If you want to know yourself you have to be with yourself, and discuss with yourself, be able to talk with yourself.” I was a homemaker for years. A lot of housework is fairly mindless, allowing for uninterrupted deep thought because most folks will not bother you while you are doing laundry. The…

Sounds a lot like Thich Nhat Hanh's approach (Miracle of Mindfulness) :) While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance this might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that's precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washin…

I read a great story, about him or one of those Tibetan Buddhist mindfulness teachers, wish I could remember who. He was teaching a mindfulness course at Esalen, on doing one thing at a time and really being there. One morning his students caught him in the act reading the paper while having breakfast. "Aha!" they said. "Yes," he said, "and when reading the newspaper and eating breakfast, read the newspaper and eat breakfast."
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