Roaming around the hospital one tunes in to a great number of sounds. A hospital is the least likely place for one to heal. The constant interruptions of the staff, diagnostic testing, the loud sounds, the conversations of the nearby patients all while the body is trying desperately to shut off unnecessary bodily functions and divert power to the areas that need attention to be repaired. The mind and body are not one in a hospital setting.
One such sound is the constant alarms of the monitors that are going off like sirens. To the uninitiated, it may seem quite frightening, but to those of us who have adapted to the healthcare environment, it literally is like a background noise that is easily ignored. But it wears down on the awakened soul or provider as one tries to create a coherent thought while writing notes or have a conversation on the phone with the patient’s absent family member. I call it alarm fatigue.
All too often we each experience the same in our daily lives outside the institutional setting. We live it at home, family, or at work or while walking around in the world.
At home, the constant noise of the hustle and bustle of the dishwasher, the heating or AC systems turning on or off, the refrigerator’s gurgling, the washing machines humming and churning. With the family, the fatigue of the children’s chattering demands and yelling incessantly. At work the echos of the office machines as they burglar our senses with printing, copying and faxing and the ringing of the phones. The notification alarms on our smart devices all day long with email or social media add to the noise radiation as if there was not already enough.
As we walk in the streets, we can hear the honking of the cars and engines roaring away supplement to the cacophony of the din.
Home fatigue, work fatigue, alarm fatigue, human fatigue, plain and simple exhaustion from the auditory pollution degrades our nervous systems.
It is only when we try to fall asleep or tumble beneath the covers, that our cells crying for silence find some short reprieve. In this material world we get precious little silence to quieten our minds. Fatigue is real. It short circuits our body, thereby inhibiting us our access to our hearts.
Each day or night, we are invited to let go of all things artificial, become still, listen to the quiet that fills our inner space with wisdom.
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I love you
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