Finding Quiet

I’m generally pretty good about keeping distractions to a minimum, but sometimes pesky things like fun articles online, pretty Instagram posts/pictures, and music as background noise while taking care of odds and ends, in addition to real life noise/work/’to do’ lists add up and take their toll.

Recently, I felt like my head was swimming with useless information, and instead of feeling like I’d taken a break from grading papers by reading those articles on TheEveryGirl.com, I felt more overwhelmed.

I started noticing that although the online articles and Netflix episodes seem short, soothing, and easy to digest at first glance, I was watching New Girl (a show I enjoy) and thinking: “I never want to watch another episode of anything ever again” (while I continued to watch the next episode).

As I read The Every Girl articles about careers, travel, and the best books to read, I kept clicking on the next article and thinking: “I never want to read another online article or blog post ever again” (as I kept clicking and reading).

It was much the same for Instagram, and even listening to music while I graded papers or cooked dinner.

I was tired of noise, literal and figurative noise, and I felt scattered and unable to focus (so much for using these modern inventions to relax). I felt like I was eating gummy bear after gummy bear in a never ending bag, well past the point that I felt sick- but for some reason I was still putting them in my mouth one by one.

So I finally stopped.

For the last two weeks I returned to reading actual books and focusing on this one thing at a time (instead of jumping from short article to shorter article, and post to Instagram post- just thinking about it is making my head throb).

And yes, reading one solid book is a little more time consuming; it doesn’t always provide the ‘short’ break we’re looking for, and for those of us who have become fans of audio books, sometimes it can feel like the slowest way to accomplish something.

But it turned out to be exactly what I needed.

I still needed breaks from the day, and nothing else seemed to be working; I was relieved that I found a way to rest that actually seemed like I resting. In fact, it felt a lot like spending a few days at our isolated mountain home in North Carolina (which is where everyone in my family slows down and recharges during the holidays). I was still working during the last two weeks, but somehow it felt like a vacation.

Now don’t get me wrong, first of all, listening to jazz music while you work or cook isn’t bad for you (and I’ll probably listen to it in the very near future), and neither is reading articles on Success.com or TheEveryGirl.com. But ometimes it all becomes too much, and you realize that instead of a small sweet treat, you’ve just eaten way too much candy.

The bottom line is, I had no reason to feel this unfocused and overwhelmed by ‘stuff’- I work from home at my leisure and I don’t have kids. All I needed to do was flip a fairly easy switch to make a major change (that I was fortunate enough to be able to make in my situation).

So lately when I need a short break, I’ll read on my Kindle app for a minute (Present Over Perfect is what I’ve been reading at the moment). When I want to take my time and really indulge, I sit back on the couch and enjoy the feel of a book in my hands (which is Julie & Julia right now).

Slowing down like this has cleared my head and gotten rid of the nonsense. I’ve grown to love the sound of relative quiet. The sound of turning the page in a paperback, hearing cars passing by on the street, birds chirping, and kids playing in the neighborhood feels like the perfect type of quiet for right now.