National Tinnitus Awareness Week
This week marks the start of National Tinnitus Awareness Week and working closely with musicians, sound industry and way beyond this, we need to consider taking great care and be aware of our health and wellness.
Whilst creativity is embedded into artists and it has a sense of innate initiative, we also need to reign back the urge to forget the impact what we do has on our health. This also goes for the less creative people out there too.
Staring at a computer screen daily with bright lights reflecting against our eyes, maybe without great posture is enough to affect our health. Playing extra loud music and even just having the speaker level turned up too high on our phones during calls, these small details can hugely impact our health over time.
Tinnitus is described as a sound that can be heard by an individual when there isn't actually a sound to hear. It's deemed as more of an invasion of pitch which cannot be removed from ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling; it can really disrupt an individual's peace of mind.
It is quite often associated with aging, an injury or issue with circulatory system or stress. Being around loud noises and music can almost certainly have an impact here.
Sound is measured in decibels dB and to give you an idea on levels human hearing threshold begins from 0dB and 120dB can cause immediate hearing damage. For every increase of 10dB the sound doubles. The lower end would be leaves rustling and human breath to the increase of an electric shaver, doorbell, baby screaming to a live concert 120dB, motorbike, thunder to a then much higher end - a rocket launch around 189dB.
To maintain a state of balance it is recommended we keep our devices turned to the lower end both volume and light to reduce the resistance to our body's natural levels and own tune.
Living in such a fast paced economy the effect it has on how we operate speeds up our body's vibration to a level beyond our own optimum pace. This can significantly affect our focus, concentration, energy and this can also lead to additional health challenges such as stress, headaches and lower our immune system.
Although National Tinnitus Awareness Week highlights tinnitus as an additional and unwanted audio sensation for our body and mind to deal with, it is also an opportunity to recognise the impact of our own body's state and its individual needs.
Quite often invasive noise can lead to significant stress and deterioration of health, leading to an imbalance and often people look for external remedies to resolve these. From sleeping pills to recreational distraction it can sometimes mask the issue but not fully resolve it.
You have likely heard the phrase that prevention is better than cure. Our message here would be to become more aware of the distractions and excess in our sensory world including technology and its impact on our attention and awareness. As much as we quite often find sound and music quite comforting to hear, it is also important for our ears, mind and body to rest as this is essential for repair and restoration.
There is a wonderful Japanese concept known as Ikagai which demonstrates a balanced perspective of life which has transpired into practice across other cultures.
Likely a topic for another week but if you want to read more into this you can find it quite easily online. The concept is about balance and in turn less stress.
Taking good care of our mental, emotional as well as day to day activity and well being is most definitely something we encourage.
Music, exercise, nutrition, sunlight, rest, knowing or finding your purpose and enhancing others lives, as well as taking care of our own well being are all significant factors.
To reflect back on National Tinnitus Awareness week there are various places you can find services and details around the subject. We recommend protecting your ears before they become damaged and its not a topic of conversation many people speak or generally spare time to think about.
We have previously worked with ACS custom who make ear plugs to protect hearing damage and this week they are doing an offer for 20% off custom ear plugs when you use the code TAW23.
We also mentioned an event in our mailout two weeks ago - Night Time Industries Association conference taking place this week. There are still tickets available for this and there will be talks on 'Making Listening Safe' amongst many other interesting topics, it will be worth very much checking this out. You can read the full article and find tickets here.
Welcome National Tinnitus Awareness Week...
Stay safe!