Day 13: Do you hear what I hear?

More feng shui for the holidays is coming at you for day 13 of this podcast advent calendar!  Today (not surprisingly) I'm talking about sound and how we can ADJUST it to support us!

There were DEFINITELY moments where I almost lost my shit when the kids were little ... at home ... wired on Christmas baking and too much tv.  I could have done things differently (I mean ... I could have given them headphones for ONE).  I hope that there is something in this podcast that you can implement, or even just think differently about the soundscape of your home and how it is affecting everyone!

I'll see you back here tomorrow.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Purpose
• 0:41 Holiday Noise And Parental Overwhelm
• 2:35 Why Sound Matters In Feng Shui
• 3:54 Calm-Boosting Sound Strategies
• 5:20 Cut Stressors: News And Notifications
• 7:20 Action Steps And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

I'm so glad that you're here. You're listening to What the Fuck Did you just say? With your host. That's me at the first table. I'm all about living our best life and finding our zone of brilliance and then removing the resistance so that we can go off in. I say random crazy gifts, which is why I called this podcast the way that I did it. And I really hate long, drawn-out intros. So let's fucking go. Welcome back to the podcast. Today is day 13, and I want to talk about sound. One of the things that I really, really remember when my kids were younger is when I was stressed or when I was really busy making the Christmas meal or whatever. But then I would also be listening to my son playing video games, Spongebob playing in the background. And you know how you just hear it so many times that the voices start to grate on your nerves, the music, you just like I would get to the place where I wanted to rip my ears right off so that I didn't have to listen to that shit. And I think that most of the time I could handle it. But when I was overwhelmed at work, overwhelmed with all of the things that I had to do, overwhelmed with decluttering, but also Christmas baking and all the groceries that were in my house that didn't really fit in my fridge and all of the rest of the things. The more clutter I had, the more overwhelmed I was, the more tasks on my to-do list, the more overwhelmed I was, and the more I wanted to lose my shit because I had to listen to noise on top of the noise that was going in my head. One of the things that I would try to do is reduce my own noise. So I would maybe turn the TV off, but I could hear everything in the background. And I don't really think that that helped me. I mean, everything just turned into be a like a symphony of stress. And if I am feeling that, everyone else in the home is also feeling that. I think sometimes we moms, we tend to just suck it up, right? We tend to think, okay, well, as long as they're happy, that's okay. I, you know, they're entertained or they're entertaining themselves. And uh so I'm I have time to myself and I can cook or I can do whatever. But if you are stressed because of all of the noise, your kids will also be stressed because of all of the noise. Everyone in the home will also be stressed because of all of the sounds. But sound is the fastest way to shift the vibe of your home, whether to the good or not so good. So why does it matter in feng shui? Sound is vibration, vibration is qi or energy, and qi affects how the body feels in real time. Everything is emitting a vibration to your body. I mean, even did you know that Christmas music in a store makes you spend more? I mean, this makes logical sense, right? But because you get into the Christmas spirit, you start thinking about gifts or food or whatever, and all of a sudden you start to spend more money, it is wild. And then all of a sudden, when you feel when you hear the silence, that also feels just so beautiful, doesn't it? But if we are constantly listening to notifications and shopping bags and clanking dishes and timers and mom, mom, mom, mom, on top of everything else, on top of the TV, on top of the games, on top of the fighting. It's like our nervous system is working over time, and that's why you feel fried. Sound isn't just noise, it's it's like it's affecting our internal world. So here's how you can use it to soften what's going on in your home. You can play soft background music. Now, here's the thing: I tended to just leave my home quiet, like I left it quiet upstairs, but then I was tuning into the rest of the noise. If I played soft music or nature sounds or singing bowls, you know, you don't have to have singing bowls. You can just go on YouTube. Any of that will lower your cortisol. But the thing is too, is that you're not only listening to that calming music, everyone else in your home is too. You can also add in holiday sounds like the crackling fireplace on your TV, soft bells. Your nervous system loves these things. The other one though is the sound of your own breath, believe it or not. So if you think of just going to a quiet place, don't care if it's, you know, you're on sweep, deep breath in, and then make a sound when you blow out. So just do actually right now, just do it with me. In through the nose, hold and then out through the mouth and make a noise. That is nervous system regulation right there. Even just that. And the other thing that you can do is reduce other things. So your phone notifications. You know, if you have your phone on where every single text you get, every single email, especially emails, you don't really need an email urgently, do you? But you know, if your email is dinging all the time, it's screaming at your nervous system. Pay attention to me, pay attention to me, pay attention to me. That will create a lot of dysregulation and increase your cortisol, a loud TV in the background, commercials, any of those spike stress. But the other thing is too, I'm a big, like, I don't watch the news anymore. I'm completely clueless to what is happening in the world. Thank God. I think I'm happier because of it. But there are studies out there that say that people who watch, I can't remember how many hours of it is, but people who consistently watch a few hours of news every single day rate their happiness as lower. I should, I'm just making up that stat. But I know they rate their happiness at lower. I just don't know how many hours, but it was a very small amount. It was like if you watch the news consistently, you rate your life as less happy. Isn't that crazy? But here's the other thing. Because I don't watch the news, my husband does a little bit, I can almost hear like a hum in the back of the news channel. I swear it's like subliminal messaging because I find it there's a hum in the back of it. And I find it so irritating to my nervous system, I have to leave the room. I'm not joking. So just paying attention to that, maybe not having the news running in the background 24-7, um, or just lowering the volume on the TV makes a difference. When you intentionally use sound to be supportive, it tells your nervous system you can slow down. This space supports you, you're safe. But chaotic sounds are something that would say, like, move faster, get going, there's so much to do, be hyper-vigilant. And it's your nervous system doing its job, but your nervous system is on high alert. So when you shift the sound scape of your home, you shift your emotional baseline. You soften, you breathe, and you move differently. So your action for today is just to pick one sound to add or remove. Turn on some soft music, turn down the TV, play a nature track, turn off your notifications, light a candle and listen to the crackle, sit in silence for 10 seconds. You don't have to sit in silence for 48 minutes, just a few seconds, truly. Deep breath in, long sigh out. It's a tiny little shift, but it's a big emotional payoff. Your home is not just what you see, it's also what you hear. We know yesterday it's also the smells that you have. Everything is energy, and energy patterns are predictable. When you know this, you can shift your home to support you in a better way. I hope you like that one and that you can turn up the calm today. I will see you back here tomorrow for day 14. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you've had some laughs, maybe some ideas, and that you've been inspired to take some type of action toward the life you've always dreamed up. If you feel so called, I would love it if you would share with your festive. Leave a review down below. I look forward to bringing a lot of, and I will see you in the next video.