466: Anxiety caused by noise sensitivity

This week we’re talking about how you can support yourself if you experience sensitivity to noise and repetitive sounds.

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“Misophonia is a condition in which negative emotions, thoughts, and physical reactions are triggered by specific sounds.”

Misophonia seems to occur more frequently in a person with a higher level of anxiety, stress, or compulsive behavior. The reaction often develops first to a parent or family member where the person has a high level of anxiety or distress and they repeatedly hear a sound like tapping, chewing, dogs barking, or bracelets clinking. It also seems to happen when a person cannot escape from the sound, such as at the dinner table, in a car, in the classroom or even laying in bed. - Notes from Misophonia Institute

Notes from this week’s show:

LIFESTYLE CHANGES THAT CAN HELP ANXIETY CAUSED BY NOISE SENSITIVITY

Ayurvedic Ear Care A sudden loud noise or busy, noisy environments can provoke vata - the energy, or principle, that in Ayurveda teaches is most susceptible to anxiety.

Protecting your ears with warm oil helps calm vata. For a relaxing home practice, you can apply a couple of drops of warm, untoasted sesame oil with a dropper to one ear at a time. Rest for a few minutes with your head on a pillow to hold the oil in your ear before draining any excess oil and switching to repeat for the other side. You might choose to apply oil in this deeper way a couple of times a week. Treating your ears with oil helps calm vata and noise sensitivity, this also helps treat or prevent tinnitus.

For quick and simple protection for your ears, you can dip your little finger in warm sesame oil and apply it to the inside of each ear during your morning bathing routine, and repeat if you are heading out - especially in a cold or windy environment. This is a good practice for the Autumn/fall season to calm vata and prevent an earache.

Regular Exercise Grounding techniques, QiGong and Yoga exercises help calm our nervous vata energy which, in turn, increases our tolerance to noise.

A good night’s rest and regular sleep schedule Ayurveda teaches that like increases like, and noisy environments can often increase our internal noise and chatter. It can be challenging to settle into peaceful sleep when our mind has been stirred up by too much noise and external stimulation.

For many anxiety sufferers, it’s very challenging to switch off our screens and be with ourselves before bed. When living with anxiety, the last thing we want is to be left alone with our anxious thoughts. This is where guided relaxation is especially helpful because you aren’t left alone with your unwelcome thoughts.

Listening to a guided relaxation before sleep can help calm your mind and stop internal chatter - we created our Sleep album to help you calm anxiety at night and ease your mind into peaceful sleep.

Massaging your feet with oil before sleep and diffusing lavender in your room will also help you improve the quality of your sleep.

Using sound protection Headphones, mp3 players, earplugs and ambient sound makers can help us create a personal quiet environment.

“As soon as we become irritated by noise and start fixating on it the issue becomes bigger. Now we’re dealing with two things: the sound itself and the irritation and stress we are feeling in response to it. It’s important to be able to adjust your environment for your personal peace and comfort and that’s why I always carry earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones. Earplugs for complete quiet and concentration and headphones to listen to what I want to hear rather than be jarred by the noise around me.” Ananga

Listen to the full episode to learn how to use EFT Tapping to reduce sensitivity to noise and hear our discussion on our favourite ways to maintain quiet and calm when away from home.