Improving your hearing can be a lever for fitness and well-being. Who would have thought?
We used to be concerned about hearing only to treat ENT disorders. However, a good hearing is now a significant positive marker of a healthy way of life.
We all wish to enjoy life and improve our way of living. We need to make a habit of taking care of our hearing in order to remain healthy and keep positive relationships with others. Here are a few good resolutions to stay fit.
Dealing with auditory fatigue
The hearing system deals with sound pressure exposures all day long: transportation, loud restaurants, noises in the workplace, television, radio, MP3 players, phone, etc… All these noises create auditory fatigue. At the end of the day, that fatigue can manifest itself with headaches, a feeling of oppression, overall weariness, etc.
The repetitive nature of these pressures cause auditory fatigue and eventually damages sensorial cells. The more they wear out, the less our auditory brain can receive and decipher stimuli. It becomes increasingly difficult to understand our peers. Our behaviour changes as well: we tend to be less patient, more aggressive, more doubtful…
Allowing recovery time for the hearing system
To stay in shape, there is a need to take “auditory pauses”. Not so long ago, nighttime was ideal for this, but it is no longer the case: people can listen to their MP3 players to fall asleep during the entire night, and/or sleep in a noisy environment (car traffic, air conditioners…).
Dr. Mireille Tardy is an ENT doctor and a member of the scientific commitee JNA. She states that “ideally, we should sleep in a room with less than 30dB for our hearing system to recuperate properly”. Past that point, stress, gastrisis and high blood pressure may appear.
Educating your hearing acuity
Our hearing sense is one of the sensorial media to nature and others. The more we develop that sense, the more we connect with the environment. Educate one’s hearing acuity means boosting our relation to emotions but especially our ability to recover as we face psychocorporal changes in our life. That way, we can keep enjoying life by relying on our internal resources.
Our ears are used to be stimulated by nearly identical frequency bands: we let them little space to discover other spectrums. It is invigorating to disturb our established neural connections and to create richer, faster ones. Our brains are like modelling clays: we are far from discovering all their abitilies to adapt and to develop.
Protecting oneself from noise pollution and other sources of risk
There are several protections to preserve your hearing system, or to give it a break. Foam plugs are ideal for open spaces to write a note or take a break at work. Protections with filters allow us to keep enjoying playing an instrument at a concert for instance. Personalised protections are useful when we play an instrument on a regular basis. Soundproof helmets for children and for adults can be used for noisy activities (karting, crafting, gardening…).
Developing self-awareness through hearing to improve human relationships
Becoming aware of our ears as an important element of our overall balance is a necessary step to psychologically invest ourselves in our own well-being. It is necessary and useful to take care of our auditory abilities, which remain extremely fragile as we do not know how to replace auditory cells. By embracing the limits and abilities of the hearing sense, we’ll be able to improve human relationships and discover new emotions.
The hearing sense evolution during natural life transition phases
We need to accept our body is meant to age. The cells of our hearing systems are no exception.
Presbycusis usually gets set around 60 years old and its first signs tend to appear at 50 years old. Denying hearing loss and keep pretending it doesn’t affect us endangers our relationship with others. According to experts, social relationships are the most powerful neural stimulus we know to this day.
Our auditory brain has more and more trouble deciphering the stimuli of the auditive nerve. Therefore, our neural connections tend to become less and less dynamic. As it means a big change, it is important to accept our hearing loss on a psychological level, in order to act.
This kind of change usually happens during a life transition phase. It is important to take time with oneself to keep self-confiance and enjoying life to the fullest.
Published by the Editorial Staff on