The Power of Listening Deeply

Sound is immensely powerful as anyone who has lived near a construction site knows. This is because sound is physical- it is a pressure wave propagating through the elastic medium of air and literally pushing against our bodies. Yet just as the sound of a jackhammer pushing against your body is impossible to ignore, a practice of listening deeply reveals a much more subtle sound world that we largely do not notice- or have trained ourselves to ignore- such as street noise, the hum of air-conditioning, passing vehicles, airplanes, the chorus of cicadas, birdsong, wind, or even our own breath and heartbeat. We unconsciously filter much of this out. These are the sounds of a world we are largely absent from, yet the effects of these sounds on our cognitive states are still quite present. Learning to listen deeply builds an awareness of this subtle sonic world and through that, we become more cognizant of what it is doing to us- and further, helps us understand what is best to listen to for optimal creative, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing.