Splash No. 217 - Brown Noise
Brown Noise
Once again, I am the willing victim of another TikTok trend. This time, I find myself deeply affected by the comforting consistency of brown noise. What is brown noise you ask? Well, it’s what I refer to my internal monologue, the sum of all of my complaining, and too many other dumb jokes. But it’s also the lesser known cousin of the well-known white noise. To get brown noise, you basically take some white noise and apply some processing (apparently taking the integral of it) — the result? A soft, continuous hum reminiscent of an air conditioner or a quiet airplane. And I absolutely love it.
For some reason, hearing this consistent drone seems to calm some portion of my brain, like parts of my gray matter are smoothed over for a while so I can think a little bit more clearly. I find myself feeling calmer and more focused. During my workday today, I decided to keep it on whenever I wasn’t in meetings, and I found myself able to get things done in between my meetings — a contrast to my other WFH days where I needed to launch myself into my bed for a few minutes immediately after any given meeting. It felt like the stress and bustle of the day weighed a little bit less upon my shoulders.
Whenever I discover small things that resonate with my mind and body like this, I always wonder how it works. For example, I recently discovered that the reason that beautiful vistas like sunsets calm us down is that our eyes must unfocus a little bit to take in the entire scene — as a result, our body adapts to this less alert way of seeing things. So, simply unfocusing your eyes in general can produce a similar calming effect. The body is magical like that — it was made to work in a certain way, and it keeps doing amazing things even though we don’t realize it. Our best ideas come when we’re walking and moving because we were born to move, our bodies feel the most tired when we find ourselves sedentary. However, there doesn’t seem to be many studies on why this specific range of sounds is so good at quieting my brain and making it easier to focus, but I imagine it must be how it seems to drown out other sounds, including some of the warring thoughts bouncing around in my head.
I wonder if it’s something to do with moving water, that we feel at peace when hearing the movement of water or rain showers, knowing that they can sustain our most natural needs. So here I am, instead playing tricks on the most primitive parts of my brain, making my subconscious imagine a flowing river so I can do my little tasks.
Drops of the Week
ALBUM - THE FUNK WILL PREVAIL by Kaelin Ellis - fun little album of beats and vibes
ARTICLE - "Unpicking the link between smell and memories" by Roxanne Khamsi - more body stuff
POEM - "Life is a Place Where it's Forbidden to Live" by Jackie Wang - When we happen upon a cabin I ask the house for shelter on her behalf
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Noisily (and brownly),
Nikhil