Noise-cancelling headphones: the secret survival tool for modern life

There’s one thing other than my wallet and my travel card I wouldn’t be without in a big city, and it’s my headphones. But I don’t actually listen to music that much: I just activate the noise-cancelling feature, and leave it at that.

No sound plays into my ears – instead a quiet fills my head, as if the sounds of the world have been turned down. Until I got noise-cancelling headphones, I had no idea how loud the city always was, and just how hungry I’d been for silence.

On public transport, using the noise-cancelling feature will soften the roar of engine and traffic. In the open-plan office, it eliminates the constant chatter and limits interruptions. On an airplane, it’s a revelation. I’m not alone in using state-of-the-art headphones not for music, but to tune out the constant drone of urban living – it’s becoming a modern life survival tool.

‘It was like that moment in a film where the sound cuts out’

Matt Thomas, an animator and motion graphics designer in London, is a convert. He discovered he could use the silencing feature on its own one day by accident, when his music cut out on the tube: “I thought, wait a minute, there’s this really nice peace and quiet. It was like that moment in a film where the sound cuts out and everything goes into slow motion.”

Heavy traffic generates noise levels of up to 85 decibels (dB), which the Health and Safety Executive deems sufficient to cause permanent hearing damage if we’re exposed to it for several hours every day. Underground trains can pass the 100dB mark when roaring around a loud corner.

Thomas often puts his headphones on silent when on public transport (he no longer does this in the street after nearly getting run over), but prefers music for work. For Johanna Vogel, an economist in Vienna, Austria, it’s the opposite: she plays music on the bus but works in silence. Vogel bought her noise-cancelling headphones hoping they would help her concentrate in an open-plan office. “It’s so relaxing,” she says. “At first I was doubtful it would make a big difference, but now couldn’t live without them. In noisy environments I really need some way to create quiet for myself.”

Noise damages more just our ears. Research studies have found links between long-term noise exposure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as low mood and difficulties with sleeping and concentrating. Adverse effects on mental and physical health can start at just 65dB, a level that seems moderate: a refrigerator hums steadily at 40dB, and an open plan office buzzes at around 60dB.

Underground trains can pass the 100dB mark when in transit. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/REX/Shutterstock

Josi Livingston, a developer at a technology startup in London, often uses the silencing feature to block out office chatter while she’s coding, but likes how she can still hear if someone talks to her. “I’m trying to minimise distraction. I need to focus, and any kind of extra stimuli will detract from that,” she says. “I think of it as engineering my environment to be the most comfortable.”

Unwanted noise can cause irritation and anger if it feels like an invasion of privacy, says Stephen Stansfeld, a Professor of Psychiatry at Queen Mary University of London who focuses on noise and health. “Having a lot of background noise when you’re doing something is tiring. Without noticing, you’re putting in a lot more effort in order to block out the noise. So when you shut it out, there’s a sense of relief.”

Getting worked up about noise can raise stress levels and leads to ill health. “But there’s no doubt that even if you’re not focused on the noise, it can still have an effect. If you’re asleep you may not wake up, but your body is still responding if you hear a loud sound,” says Stansfeld. “The body responds to noise as a stressor.”

Bethany Temple, an attorney in Raleigh, North Carolina, sometimes uses her headphones to avoid having to hear the TV when she’s at home with her husband. Temple says the silencing feature helps her feel more centred in herself: “When you realise just how much ambient noise there is everywhere: the refrigerator is running, the dishwasher, the washing machine and air conditioner, cars are going by outside. When that goes away, and you have the ability to be silent with your thoughts – once you realise that exists in the world, you start craving more.”

From airline pilots to urban dwellers

Noise-cancelling headphones were originally created for airplane pilots to improve their comfort on long flights, and the first consumer versions were also intended for travellers.

The technology, known as active noise-cancellation (ANC), works by using microphones to pick up low-frequency noise and neutralise it before it reaches the ear. The headset generates a sound that’s phase-inverted by 180 degrees to the unwanted noise, resulting in the two sounds cancelling each other out.

ANC headphones turn down the volume of the world by about 30dB, says Brian Brorsbøl, Director of Product Management at Sennheiser Communications – the reduction ranges between 20dB and 45dB, as the technology is more efficient against low-frequency sounds. “Using noise-cancelling technology on its own is something we’ve heard some people are doing,” he says.

When my partner, who even uses the silencing function when walking down the street, first told me these headphones would change my life, I was skeptical. How could it possibly be so revolutionary? But I get it now.

These headphones let me create breathing room in a busy city. They let me hear myself think. Every time I put them on and switch on the quiet, the feeling is one of relief.

Noise-cancelling headphones: the secret survival tool for modern life

The online tool that helps the public decode health research

Health concerns every one of us. We all have questions about the impact of factors such as lifestyle and diet on our wellbeing. Yet for all our collective curiosity, it is immensely difficult to sift through the mountain of claims and counter-claims we’re exposed to each day. We are bombarded with declarations about our health and wellbeing, and frequently these assertions are conflicting. Sorting the signal from the noise is no small task.

Traditionally, part of the problem has been access to information. Scientific journals charge for access to research papers, and the cost can be prohibitive to anyone – including researchers – bar institutional libraries . This has improved rapidly over recent years, with many research councils and funding bodies pushing towards open-access publishing, encouraging researchers to ensure their findings are made freely accessible to the public. This is hugely beneficial, but access is only half the battle. The vital issue of appraising medical findings still remains rather daunting for most of us.

The reality is that studies can be notoriously difficult to decode in isolation. The mere fact a study exists showing a particular result is not in itself evidence that result is robust or true. It is crucial to be aware that not all studies are created equal, and some are much higher quality than others. This is a particular concern in the medical field, where confounding factors frequently skew conclusions. For example, studies with only a small number of participants are often statistically underpowered, and results from these might give a misleading picture of reality .

Even with an adequate sample size, it can be difficult to distinguish causal relationships from mere correlation, and lurking variables or poor study design can throw out an entire analysis. Apparently conflicting findings can also occur, rendering a study’s conclusions ambiguous to a general audience, and making it difficult to draw inference with any certainty.

Addressing the difficulties in interpreting research results has therefore been a driving motivation for a project undertaken by the Medical Research Council/Central Statistics Office Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (MRC/CSO SPHSU) at University of Glasgow. The result is Understanding Health Research (UHR), a free service created with the intention of helping people better understand health research in context.

Essentially, UHR it functions as an interactive field-guide to evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of any given health paper. In addition, it gives clear and understandable explanations of important considerations like sampling, bias, uncertainty and replicability. This has the potential to be invaluable for improving public understanding of science and ultimately to improving our collective well-being. After all, as Dr Shona Hilton, deputy director of MRC/CSO SPHSU says “without the tools to assess contradictory health messages and claims about new discoveries and treatments, the public are vulnerable to false hope, emotional distress, financial exploitation and serious health risks.”

This is all too true. As Shakespeare pointed out “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose”, and this remains especially true in health science, where misguided or unscrupulous operators can hide behind a veneer of science disguising dubious ideas or therapies. It is hoped that tools such as UHR will help the general public differentiate between high and low quality evidence.

A dark example of the need for UHR is the panic over the MMR vaccine, which was partly based on what turned out to be a weak study published in the Lancet. The ensuing panic lowered vaccination rates and fuelled a persistent on-going crusade against vaccines. Over a decade later we are still haunted by the spectre of frequent measles outbreaks worldwide, many of which trace their lineage back to this debacle.

Of course, science is inherently complex and findings often shaded with nuance, so no one tool can ever be expected to serve as a surrogate for expertise. Rather, UHR serves as an excellent place to start an investigation, giving people the ability to roughly assess how much stock they might place in a health finding or media story. In this era of rapidly perpetuating misinformation, useful and considered tools like this are a welcome antidote to unabated hyperbole, and a crucial vanguard in the campaign for better understanding of science and health.

The online tool that helps the public decode health research

Anger is an Important tool if we discover how to use it

There is an inherent strain for us to forgive.  It is regarded an excellent. Even so, the biggest fallacy of ideals comes about when we push a method primarily based on its perfect rather than its merit or legitimacy.  The truth is, we are deeply intelligent beings here to dwell our reality authentically and to the fullest extent .  We are right here to soar into our “beingness” and produce infinite variations of our truthful divine expression.

Every single minute is a opportunity for us to be fully “who we are”.  So then, what, pray tell, do we do with anger?  This is a profound question.  The spot in which we have to get started is to accept the validity of our anger and soreness just before it can be transformed.  We have to give credit to the part of ourselves that is saying “something in my existence needs to adjust so I can fully express myself”.

Anger is effective instrument.  Like all strong tools–sexuality, femininity, the body–anger has been suppressed in our globe.  Think about a world where we all spoke our reality, never settled for second best by no means took or felt offense.  Imagine if we had been all just getting genuine, and when issues were not in integrity with our love and bliss, we had been given the space to express ourselves and architect a modify with the support of everyone close to.  Wouldn’t that be great?

At the moment we live in a way the place every time we feel a discordance with our truth and begin to express it, we Fear that we will be viewed as angry, unevolved, unloving, “rough close to the edges”, obtaining “low vibe bad energy”, and all kinds of social stigma.  We are encouraged to very carefully and artfully suppress the intelligence of our feelings, or we will be viewed as “controlling”or “aggressive”.  Particularly within spiritual circles, it is deemed “falling out of your equanimity”.

I think that equanimity is a lovely idea, but when used properly, you see the beauty of every single element of your getting.  Equanimity to me is when you are in alignment with all your feelings.  The false meaning of equanimity is this spot the place you are just satisfied all the time…exemplifying the utmost politeness, kindness and adore in the face of Every thing, even items that are in deep conflict with your reality. Is getting able to withhold Response to corruption or discordance the highest kind of mastery?  Or is it the highest from of cowardice?

Global politics is the macrocosm of our personal accepted human politics.  Just as we justify our lies and suppressions to stay away from causing ripple, our government and politicians expose us to the identical normal of deception in the title of diplomacy.  It’s a normal, that we as awakening beings are setting out to reform, all although even now juggling our ancient programming of deep inner judgment of coming across as becoming angry.

Right here is my basic resolution:  Consider the time to understand the source of your anger.  Figure out if it is coming from a location of dread or disharmony with your truth.  If it is your reality, enable the feeling of anger to energize your quest turning out to be a lot more of who you are. Do not let yourself or other folks strain you into forgiveness until you are actually prepared to forgive.  I don’t really think that YOU can forgive any person.  Forgiveness is a method.  It basically happens.  In reality, it is inevitable.  If we purely and organically give ourselves time to process every feeling of anger, hurt, and pain, there are two natural outcomes. First of all, the discordant energy transforms.  This is the magic of the alchemical energy present in the belly fire of anger.  No guts, no glory.  Secondly, this will naturally end result in forgiveness.  If your intentions are right, the divine purpose of lighting this fire is to create greater harmony.  So really, we detest the game, not the player.  So once the game is destroyed but your truth, you transcend the need to forgive. Consequently, I say forgiveness is inevitable.  It is a organic progression.

Contrary to well-liked belief, each and every time you go via honoring your emotions and energy, you do by yourself, your opponent, and the globe at huge a favor.  With every truth expressed, with every battle won, really like is the great victor.  By way of your courage and authenticity, a small bit of dense matter in our collective universe is launched.  Slowly but definitely feelings and sensations will be heard, received, and given its correct standing on planet earth and beyond.

About the writer:

Indra is a powerful international healer. Through her function, she has assisted hundreds of folks locate well being, wealth, enjoy and happiness, transforming their lives permanently.

At age 15, she had her spiritual awakening in India, through which she experienced a deep bodily, DNA-degree activation. This led her to the discovery of profound understanding about self-empowerment by way of the activation of DNA.

Wanting to check out the complete significance of her experience, she took on the challenge of testing her spiritual expertise in daily situations, exposing her self to all elements of the human knowledge. This intense experiment with the programmed world proved to be a strong confirmation that the Bliss Instinct reigns supreme to all other instincts of human type. Getting returned to her normal blissful state by way of the LumenOctave principles, she has devoted her existence to healing and inspiring individuals all around her.

Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Communications, Indra combines her esoteric and intuitive information with sensible academic and corporate expertise to supply a in no way ahead of noticed healing strategy, which addresses the human problem on all amounts.

Anger is an Important tool if we discover how to use it