You can also learn to notice sounds. Perhaps that does not strike you as the most scintillating of prospects, but please, before you tune out, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, stop right now, look away from your screen, and listen.
Listen:
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Do you hear any sounds?
Sounds all around you, right now, that you weren’t noticing?
Birds chirping? A heater or a/c vent blowing? People chattering? A floor creaking? A hammer banging? A rushing, a blowing, a whispering? Some sort of something, somewhere, in the distance?
All of that noise, all around you, and just a moment ago, you were blind to it. It’s kind of remarkable, really, when you stop and listen.
So—yes.
You can learn to be mindful of sounds. You can, at any moment, pause and say to yourself, “I wonder what sounds are happening around me right now?” And you can then choose to listen.
If you wanted to, you could even schedule sound-watching appointments for yourself. Once an hour, say. Or maybe just once a day. Once a day, stop and say, “I wonder what sounds are happening?”
And then just listen.
Why bother?
If you want to make contact with the present—if you want to notice your life as you’re living it—sounds are definitely in the present. Noticing them means you’re in the present, too.
And if that’s not reason enough, noticing sounds (and other external phenomena) can also serve as a training ground for learning how to notice other things. We will turn our attention to that next.
