Screaming rock-n-rap music, jackhammers, car horns, ringing cell phones, crying babies - without ignoring the common noise in our chaotic culture, the modern equivalent of medieval torture is worse because there is no avoiding it! It would be different if it looked like a train whistle on the night that we had long taken root. But modern noises are offensive in their sudden, sharp flash of our senses. When you hear a spike scream, a warlord screaming around the room, or the walls of your teen bedroom vibrate from decibels coming from the inside, aren't you going to fly to a warm, quiet, lush, soothing tropical island? And car alarms! They still don't work; there must be a law prohibiting them. They are enough to make us call a realtor and pack that night! Is there any shelter from noise? No refugee from the chaotic rhythm and pulse of everyday life? The noise level in the world increases with temperature. Call it Global Deafening. Help!
In fact, there is help. This is called a serenity room, and these rooms are becoming very popular, especially now that the number of empty nests is growing, and the boomers have a house more or less for ourselves, at least until "boomerrangers" arrive. Here is the idea:
Find an empty room - an empty bedroom, wardrobe, stove or bathroom, if needed, and turn them into a serenity room. Darken the walls. To furnish the place is very small - a stand for candles, a small stereo system, floor cushions. Heavy shades will raise your spirits. Install the lock on the door. Even better, the room should be closed to anyone under the age of thirty, or shorter than three feet. Do it four feet. And no pets. One proposal, at no cost, is a factor, is the actual shortened remodeling. Look in the Yellow Pages or the Internet in quiet rooms, in theater houses or in meditation rooms and see all the offers. There are complex shades of windows - product QuietRock, which is a plasterboard, made specifically for use in sound insulation. There are indirect sources of lighting or mood, even lighting, which increases the amount and type of light if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, in addition to noise pollution. , The same effect while reducing external noise can be achieved by hanging blankets on the walls, and this can be a new solution for couples. Wall coverings can be an art project, or a garage selling / antique shop / self-damaging expedition.
How to use the serenity room? Take an hour a week, a day or a time that you decide, and go there. Light the candles. Draw shades. Wear AKAPPLE SINGING, TIM YANISE, ENU or Secret Garden on the stereo. Straighten together on the pillows and just listen to each other. Relax. Enjoy. If it is not part of all mental health regimens, it will be soon, as people will recognize the value of this priceless sensory deprivation. The biggest obstacle that you will first find is allowing yourself the luxury of ignoring everything you need to do and the general anxiety that makes you need the room first. But this is noise, which is the main task.
Noise is not just a problem for our psychological well-being. A serenity room can double as a physical health room. Studies show a strong link between excessive noise and heart disease. According to research by the World Health Organization, thousands of people around the world die prematurely from heart disease caused by prolonged exposure to excessive noise. For example, it is estimated that in 2006 in the UK, heart disease caused 101,000 deaths, and a study shows that 3030 of them are caused by chronic noise exposure, including daytime traffic. It may be in the interest of your health to make a serenity room.
Here is another reason to make a serenity room. Hearing loss caused by noise. This is a constant hearing, caused by prolonged exposure to high levels of noise. Nearly 15% of Americans have a hearing loss that affects their ability to understand normal speech *. And excessive noise exposure is the most common cause of hearing loss. Twenty-five percent of the labor force in the United States is regularly exposed to potentially dangerous noise.
When you have a serenity room, you will need to establish royalties for its use. It should not be different. in your life, but a soothing habit, sort of like settling in a comfortable chair after working with your slippers, a newspaper and a glass of Gewurtztraminer. In other words, another ritual that enhances how you avoid the demands of your day is only slightly different, and a little bit romance. Be the first in your area.
Here are some recommended rituals for you to start working in the serenity room:
Your favorite new age or classical music is Tim Janis, Enya, Secret Garden. Incense and / or candles. (Please do not burn the house, fire trucks are really noisy!) Set aside a certain time every day or as needed. You do not need to actively meditate, although you may find it inevitable after a short time, and this is normal. One small detail that you may wish to include is a copy of the poem by Max Hermann, popular in the 1960s, which says, in particular: “Walk calmly, in the middle of noise and haste, and remember what kind of world it can be, in silence. “If there ever was this little poem, we need it now. Looking through it can be a good way to start a session every time.
Speaking of turns and using the serenity room as a couple, this is the main reason for creating it. Too many couples abandon their relationship with the various noises of their lives: jobs; Children; & # 39; must & # 39 ;; meetings and essentials with other couples. One of the principles of the capillary model is a new approach to couples and ways to celebrate basic relationships.
Do the ritual of the serenity room more than three times in a row, and you will make it part of your normal procedure forever guaranteed.
Finally, too many external noises - of all kinds - including all of the above, plus one very important kind of interference, the sound of your spouse's voice and how it becomes muffled by the noise. This is not good. Especially for men with a higher frequency of hearing loss than women, a serenity room can greatly help your relationship. A serenity room can easily become a place from which you retreat, when everything is too fussy to be true, children make you go crazy, bills scream to be paid, and you neglect one person whose voice calms you more than any other. And the best part of everything is that as soon as you have a room of serenity, the resulting peace and comfort that you get are free! Your serenity room will soon become your common, private (quiet) shelter. Shh!
* National Institute of NIDCD for deafness and other communication disorders
** (Suter and von Gierke, 1987)
*** Desiderata © 1927 max ehrmann
