Noise and Stress
Comments Off on Noise and StressThat’s one thing I hate! All the noise, noise, noise, noise!” The Grinch
I don’t work in a noisy environment, a fact for which I am very grateful. But for the better part of the past three weeks, I have lived in a noisy construction zone. Some of it was my own doing, as we’re getting a new driveway and walk installed. And some was totally out of my control … our personal project came to an abrupt halt when the City began ripping out and replacing curbs along the entire street. Next will be the paving phase.
A quick browse of a wiki on noise will inform you that it can cause
- hearing loss
- hypertension and cardiovascular incidents from chronically elevated cortisol levels
- annoyance
to name a few effects.
And my own addition to the list – general discombobulation. I am tired, I am listless, I am unable to leave and return to my house on MY schedule and I have to park my car on another street … but not for too long, or you get a ticket : )
I have to say I’ve been very impressed with all the construction peeps. Kudos to the hardworking Patterned Concrete and City employees … but a 7 a.m. Saturday-morning-cement-saw-wake-up-call wove thoughts of a dentist drilling into my dreams.
So – let’s look at hearing loss. I’m not likely to suffer after only three weeks of dump trucks banging shut once they have emptied their payload; cement saws, back up beep beep beeping, backhoes revving up and workers yelling to be heard over the din. But let me encourage you to wear hearing (and vision) protection if you are working somewhere it’s gonna get loud!
Cardiovascular incidents from chronically elevated cortisol levels … well that just means we are in fight or flight mode and that’s a healthy response as you do want to be able to run away from a dump truck barreling down the street. But if you can reduce the other things that cause you to be in fight or flight mode when you don’t need to be – caffeine, nicotine, over training, stress – that will go a long way to helping even out cortisol levels.
I can address annoyance and discombobulation in the same breath. Really, this is about OUR reaction to something. We don’t like when our routines are disturbed, when our little street needs a flag person to direct traffic, when we can’t hear our client on Skype because the outside noises drifting into the office cause their voice to cut out. These things are out of our control. What’s in our control? How we feed our bodies and how we feed our minds.
Reduce stress by “eating the rainbow” everyday. Aim for five different colours of organic fruits and vegetables to provide the antioxidants that help your body cope with stress. Try to avoid food with chemical additives and household chemicals, as they add stress on the liver to detoxify.
Include stress-reduction exercises in your day. Go for a walk, preferably somewhere that you pass by lilacs or other lovely scents. Or maybe you’d like to try yoga. Or before the ruckus begins, sit quietly somewhere comfortable; light a candle and just be. Meditation – even for 8 minutes – can make a huge difference.
Pay attention to your self-talk. How are you looking at the situation that is annoying you? Are you complaining OR can you turn that around to something positive (or at least neutral)?
When the noisy work finishes for the day, pay attention. Enjoy the quiet. Sometimes we need to lose something, even temporarily, to appreciate what we have.
With special thanks to Russell Gammon who shared this photo taken at the Milwaukee Airport