tuning out noise

When do we usually notice noise ? When do we feel that I finally need to stop scrolling or stop daydreaming or stop eating or stop watching TV ? It is most definitely triggered by a major life event but in day to day life, it’s the feeling of being tired by constant stimulation. The feeling of expansion/ let go when suddenly you are at your home turning on the lights.

I usually do it by identifying the source with largest amplitude or something spitting the most amount of bits/ sec. Another way to navigate it is starting from scratch, in my experience usually if you pay 110% attention during the start of a process (carefully analyzing and dissecting it until you clearly understand every single piece) following the rest of it is much easier and requires lesser sustained attention. Going back to the drawing board is the best way to avoid ‘slipping’.

Another way is replacement, replace the current source by a superior source - if it’s youtube, is there something higer quality available (eg a professional creator, well researched material - older documentries), if it’s food : can you get to something which is more tasty, has higher nutrition, lower calories and ‘satisfies’ that craving. It’s the same principle as ‘building stuff’ - identify the emotion, engage it untill it no longer bothers you. Identify and remember the process since it’s transferable to other emotions. It’s much more difficult with subtleness and requires greater concentration and low stimulation environments.

Finally why do all of this ? For me it ties back to my goals, morality and what, why and how to act in the current moment. Even if you do not agree with my morality, value system or too much structure, I would still implore you to develop the muscle of identifying emotions that you are currently blind to and then think how long do you want to keep feeling it ?

Trauma is the biggest example of this, it’s basically fear making you blind to your past, so when you do feel those minor traumatic conditions in the present, you immediately act on instinct. There is another way, if you can keep conscious during that involuntry response, you can now observe it from a distance and that gives you perspective.

Decreasing noise helps you to focus on what you really like.

It also helps with cleaner transitions (me time).

Once you calm down, you can notice more noise in the outside world and choose to alleviate it, choose to get paid for it.