actually change your biology that it can
increase or decrease your hormones
change your breathing or heart rate that
it can move you towards an action or
compel you to come to a complete
standstill sound is that powerful it can
make you feel relaxed or worried or sad
but it’s actually even more powerful
than that did you know that hearing a
baby cry increases levels of oxytocin
oxytocin is a chemical in our bodies
that improves feelings of connection and
love and why is that important well
oxytocin is the reason why most parents
will continue to get up to care for a
screaming baby over and over and over
all through the night instead of
hightailing it out of there and taking a
permanent vacation but not all of the
impacts of sound are so positive in one
study they discovered that chronic loud
noise would change the brain chemistry
of a developing child and this had
long-term lasting effects on their
health so how do we remedy this powerful
impact of sound with something even more
Wow that felt like forever didn’t it and
that was only 30 seconds and to think we
were gonna make you all sit there for 60
so aren’t you lucky but how did that
make you feel were you as uncomfortable
as we were I was really uncomfortable it
sound impacts your breathing and your
heart rate and consequently can increase
your cortisol levels so even somebody
who’s not naturally anxious can be more
anxious when we tip the scales to the
sympathetic nervous system which is
responsible for our fight and flight
response our bodies react as if they’re
in contrast silence tips those scales
back to the parasympathetic nervous
system our rest and digest responses and
this is where relaxation occurs and in
fact the idea for this TED talk came to
me while I was preparing to teach a
meditation class and I was packing up my
Tibetan singing bowl into my bag and it
just struck me how we use both silence
and sound to impact the way we think the
way we feel and the way we behave and
how we can intentionally use specific
sounds and silence to move deeper and
deeper into states of peace and
tranquility whether we notice it or not
sound is constant in our lives our ears
are full so full in fact that
researchers coined the term noise
pollution as early as the 1960s when
they began to study the negative impact
that 24-hour noise chronic sound has on
your overall well-being and it’s not
good not good at all in 2011 the World
Health Organization deemed noise
pollution a modern plague and they went
on to identify seven adverse health
effects among them were increased rates
of high blood pressure
increased cardiovascular disease and
even cognitive impairment and children
think about that that got us thinking
and we really thought that anxiety
should be added to this list as
psychologists we were seeing elevated
levels of anxiety in our practices and
around us and we began to think that it
was highly correlated with the amount of
sound in our environment in 2014 the
National Institute of Health estimated
that one out of three people in the US
will experience an anxiety disorder in
their lifetime look around you one out
of three of you that’s a lot and wait it
gets even better than that the average
age of onset is only 11 years old eleven
that’s really young so one theory is
that anxious people are more
hypersensitive to sound but we think
it’s the other way around and that the
constant barrage of noise in our
environment is what can actually create
anxiety so even if you aren’t naturally
anxious you may find yourself more
revved up on edge irritable just by the
noise and your environment this is the
sound of the refrigerator running so
just one of the very many sounds in our
environment that is constant and outside
of our control have you ever had that
experience of going from noise to
silence noise that you weren’t even
aware of until it was gone take an
office environment for example we have
these sound machines in our office being
psychologists we use white noise for
privacy and to make sure that nobody can
hear what’s going on behind the door
well in addition to that we have loud
music playing overhead in addition to
that of course we have the voices of
everybody in the office talking to each
other through the doors through the
walls
so at the end of the night when the
talking is finally over thank goodness
and we start to close up the office we
shut off those machines and the music
overhead and it’s as if peace and
stillness are restored for myself it’s
like taking a deep breath at the edge of
the ocean serenity and all from the
removal of sound when you take control
of sound you take control of your
physiological responses your stress
responses and in return you can impact
your thoughts your behavior your mind
everything what we propose is that
everybody is in need of a sound vacation
that if you want to increase your
overall well-being decrease anxiety you
need to eliminate or at least try to
reduce some of the noise that is
constantly around us and you know the
best part about that Kristin tell me
science backs us up so you see your
brain is actually more active in silence
okay and now bear with me I know that
sounds contradictory to what we’ve been
saying but in one study they showed that
just having two hours of silence a day
increased cellular growth in the brain
that’s the kind of activity I’m talking
about and what’s better yet is it occurs
in the brain structure known as the
hippocampus which is responsible for
learning memory and emotion so just by
being in silence you can learn more
remember more and modulate your emotions
better that is pretty cool that is
really cool and has very practical
real-life applications take college
students for example suppose you have a
test to study for or presentation to
give you might like to know that silence
after studying even a little bit will
help your brain with consolidation and
recall of
information so here’s to an easy a but
whether you’re a college student or not
we believe that everyone should practice
the art of taking a sound vacation and
we’re sure there are dozens of ways to
do this but we have three ideas for you
first try the complete absence of noise
noise canceling headphones earplugs and
if that’s not possible just try to have
a silent breakfast sitting in silence no
talking no phone no music just eating
your breakfast pretty radical huh
or how about getting out into nature
unplugging from your iPhones or iPads
anything with an I and your music and
getting out into nature tuning in to the
sounds of nature the wind rustling
through the trees water trickling down a
stream or maybe if you’re lucky the
random chipmunk or squirrel scurrying
about and if that’s not possible
just tune in to the noise around us
because it’s everywhere and it’s 24
hours a day and be mindful of how that
sound impacts you consciously choose the
sounds that give you the experience that
you’re looking for so if you are looking
to rest and relax
choose the sounds that make you feel
that way you see sound is really
powerful but in today’s day with so much
of it whirling around us all of the time
silence is even more powerful even if it
makes us very uncomfortable even if thank you