The power of quiet
In an increasingly noisy world, why silence truly is golden.
Rain gently pattering on the roof while you sit cosy inside, rustling leaves or birdsong heard on a walk, these are sounds that can restore us. Crucially, we do not think of them as noise. Sadly, for most people, their everyday soundtrack is more likely to include the incessant beep of notifications, the rumble of traffic, aeroplanes, washing machines going mad on the spin cycle or the constant background buzz of televisions chattering. This is the sort of persistent noise that can be poison for our wellbeing.
The difficulty is that much of this is thrust upon us as a consequence of living in the modern world. And while the issues surrounding air pollution are increasingly well known, noise pollution often gets overlooked despite it being linked to heightened stress, elevated blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease. It has this affect because the continuous activation of our natural stress responses adds a