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Bored to Tears? Use Your Ears!
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"A cold day" by Leonardus Thomas Boelaars, after H. Bogaerts, 1869–1937/Rijksmuseum (public domain))
Wellbeing

Bored to Tears? Use Your Ears!

How to Soundwalk
Iza Smelczyńska
Reading
time 4 minutes
Iza Smelczyńska:
gives life to ideas, makes suggestions, and keeps track of everyone’s work. She writes her own column “Szafa gra”.

We are so used to constant noise that we’ve stopped hearing quieter sounds: whispers, hums and creaks. It’s time to open up to the world again. Let’s start our soundwalk! It’s best to keep both eyes and ears wide open. Taking walks for pleasure and good health is all about noticing the soundscapes around us – seemingly trivial, inconspicuously relevant, inaudible and deafening, too. Of all the human senses, sight is considered the most trustworthy. However, those two funnily protruding body parts attached to our heads deserve appreciation as well. They are worth being taken care of, not only during our morning routines.

An auditory workout can be completed anytime, anywhere and with anyone who cares enough to keep you company throughout. Even though it may sound about as exhausting as laying on the couch, it can be a bone-shaking experience. Especially when it comes to the smallest bones, which are located in the middle ear and bear such quaint names as hammer, anvil and stirrup (they are responsible for our hearing). So, time for a walk!

Soundscape

Start walking. If you

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Iza Smelczyńska:
gives life to ideas, makes suggestions, and keeps track of everyone’s work. She writes her own column “Szafa gra”.
Translation: Joanna Piechura
Publish date: 18.06.2021

Also read:

A Kingdom for Silence
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Wassily Kandinsy, “Weisser Punkt”
Wellbeing

A Kingdom for Silence

The Problem with Noise
Agnieszka Fiedorowicz
Agnieszka Fiedorowicz:

is a popular science journalist. She has worked for the largest Polish popular science monthly “Focus”, as well as several other Polish magazines, including “Elle”, “Harper’s Bazaar”, “Coaching” and “National Geographic”. She is vice editor-in-chief of the magazine “Po prostu zyj” [Just Live!] (http://stomalife.pl/index.php/magazyn-po-prostu-zyj/), published by the Polish Foundation of People with Ostomy, Stoma Life. She won Amnesty International Polska’s “Pen of Hope” (2010) award, and has been nominated three times for the Polish Grand Press Prize (category: social and scientific journalism). She is married, with two kids, Marta and Marcin, and one German Shepherd, Dzikus.

Noise is a belittled threat that disrupts the functioning of people, animals, even plants. It causes stress, provokes aggression, increases the risk of heart disease. Blocking the issue of noise can bring catastrophic consequences for us.

Morning coffee. I set up my laptop in the garden. All I can hear is the morning chirping of birds. Nothing to bother me. Suddenly, the roar of a chainsaw tears into the idyllic scenery. Actually, it’s two chainsaws, which the new neighbours are using to massacre trees on the plot next door. Construction work has started. I hide in the house. Unfortunately, even with my windows shut, my ears register a muffled yet distracting roar. Noise has caught up with me here, in the countryside, the place I escaped to from the city. Is there any way to protect myself from it?

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