“Our world has become increasingly filled with noise. It’s estimated that noise pollution doubles or triples every thirty years. Much of this change is the result of urbanization, which dramatically increases land and air traffic, as well as neighborhood and city development. Car alarms. lawn mowers, and sirens are the background noise to our homes—homes that are louder inside with technological developments such as televisions, speakers, and music in our headphones.”
—Sarah Boyd, Turn Down the Noise
Our Brains Were Designed For Simpler Times
Sarah Boyd (M.Ed. Psych.) has done her homework.
As a child and adolescent development expert and founder of Resilient Little Hearts, Sarah believes reducing the noise of overstimulation and chronic stress for you and your family is possible.
Psych Mechanics defines overstimulation or sensory overload “as when the sensory information you receive from one or more of your senses exceeds your brain's information processing capacity. Our brains have a limited capacity to process sensory information, and processing sensory information consumes mental energy and bandwidth. The brain does what it can to conserve energy.”1
The bottom line is that “our brains were designed for simpler times.”
Would you agree or disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts right here.
My Conversation with Sarah
Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist, says that ‘silence is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. This belief has motivated him to advocate for and protect the last ‘quiet places’—areas across the USA that are currently untouched by human sound or noise pollution. For an area to quality as a quiet place, it has to have multiple fifteen-minute intervals with no human sound interruptions (such as air traffic or construction). Gordon has named the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, Washington, as possibly the quietest place in the USA. He calls it ‘One Square Inch of Silence.’
—Sarah Boyd, “Turn Down the Noise”
A Noise Examen
At the end of today’s VLOG (Video Blog, above), I read from Sarah’s book, pp.12-13. I shared how “scientists explained that during the pandemic lockdown, the birds were recovering an acoustic strength and range of song they had lost decades before as a result of high levels of noise. The background noise in the environment had changed the way birds were singing and communicating. Noise changes the way we interact in the world.”2
There are so many “a-ha’s” in this finding that I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe we have lost “acoustic strength” and “range of song” due to the noise pollution inside and outside of our hearts, homes, and families.
This so challenges me that I will take the time to do “a noise examen” over the weekend.
Borrowing from “the daily examen,”3 I’ll apply the same five movements:
Ask God for light.
Give thanks.
Review the day. Adding here, “Review the noise of today. What noise pollution did I hear that distracted me? Did it make me lose focus? Did it increase my frustration and make me irritable? Did it change my tone of voice—make me yell or lose my cool with my kids, husband, coworkers, etc.? Did I notice the effects of the overstimulation of the noise pollution? Did it put me on edge? Was I more exhausted or drained than usual?
Face your shortcomings. Ask yourself, “How can I do better? Are there ways I can ‘turn down the noise?’”
Look toward the day to come.
As Always
As always, I’d love to keep this conversation going right here.
I’ll look for your thoughts.
—Janell
https://www.psychmechanics.com/overstimulated-meaning-signs-how-to-cope/.
Boyd, S. (2025). Turn down the noise: A practical guide to building an emotionally healthy family in a chronically overstimulated world. Tyndale House (eBook).
https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Examen-Prayer-Card.pdf
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