When life overwhelms us

For some of us the simple sounds around us can start to get overwhelming and we need to figure out just how to manage everything. The sounds that I am talking about is traffic outside where to live to even the sounds that are within your home. I know that living in an apartment building it means that we deal with quite a few sounds that we don’t have any control over. For someone that have very sensitive hearing these sounds can seem to be extremely loud even when they aren’t even audible to others around us. 

I know that there are times when I am sitting here at my desk, and I can enjoy listening to the little bits of sounds around me and then there are times when things just seem to start to escalate and I am not certain how to manage them. Living in an apartment building I know that I am going to hear the sounds from the units around us which normally aren’t too bad but there are times when a unit is getting renovated that the sounds seem to be extremely loud. Other sounds that we hear quite frequently while living in an apartment during are:

• Doors slamming because people don’t think about how them dropping their door will affect others.
• Crossing guard whistle during the day so that children and adults can cross the street. It used to be that the crossing guard only blew their whistle for children but now it seems they do it for everyone.
• Emergency vehicles sirens seem to be quite frequent and that is probably due to living in a high destiny area.
• Van doors slamming – this is due to veggies vendors being able to a park in a regular street parking park and sell their veggies for days/weeks/months on end.
• Car’s backfiring – this is due to cars not being tuned correctly so everyone has to listen to cars backfiring and almost sounding like gun shots around us on a very regular basis.
• People – children/adults thinking that bouncing on the floor is fun because that makes them happy and it doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is.
• Music playing – people not understanding that the sound of their stereo especially the base sound is going to be heard through multiple floors because where they stereo or speakers are located. Speakers on the floor are going to transfer sounds through multiple floors even if you don’t think that they do.

I know for someone like me there are days when I think I can manage everything just fine and then all of a sudden, the sounds seem to escalate and what I thought I could manage isn’t manageable any longer. The sounds that each person hears is going to differ and you have to understand and respect that when you live in a high destiny area even what you think might not be a loud noise could possible bother someone else.

As I am writing this blog there is someone on one of the floors above me that things that bouncing on the floor is a lot of fun. This sound is travelling through at least a floor or two and they don’t understand how others hear the sound. The other thing is when someone decides to knock on their wall because it just seems fun. The unit beside you is going to hear is so be prepared to get someone knocking back to let you know that you are heard.

Of course, there are going to be sounds that overwhelm us sometimes and then other times those same sounds are something we can manage. We just need to know that being able to escape from the sounds is something that we need to do and we also need to know that we have the method available that allows us to escape them.