Music is escapism. I use it to avoid confronting my perpetual feeling of being overwhelmed. But, for the last week, I have been walking around headphone-less, and I think this may become my new default.
The trap of listening to music whilst walking includes the obvious: it provides endless stimulation that distracts me from my thoughts, it estranges me from my surroundings, and, in some contexts, creates an illusion of urgency making me feel acutely stressed. Its overall effect is that it disconnects me from my present reality. Whilst I seek out the pleasure of listening to it in hopes of it calming me, it paradoxically produces the opposite result. By walking without my headphones, I have realised how it never truly placed me at ease, instead, contributing to my desire to further reach for my phone to numb myself. This isn’t to say that this is its only impact, but when you live an already hyper-productive life, constant overstimulation will never put you at rest.
What I found instead through my headphone-less-ness was that I was engaging more with my surroundings. Ultimately, as the hippie in me concedes, I was grounding myself. I felt less stressed, and being in a better mood, was able to be more productive. I’m not about to get into the psychology of it all (mainly because I have no clue what it is) but God, you can’t deny how actively noticing the breeze on your face, or the laugh of the little kid walking ahead of you, calms you and truly helps you to relax.
Photo credits “Headphones” by TalAtlas is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
