The Sound Harbour | A Place to Rest and Reorient

The Haven Sound Harbour launches this week. It was inspired by last month’s Gentle Humdinger Workshop, where we looked at the impact of what we hear on how we see and experience the world.

The Haven Sound Harbour - Isle of Bute

It’s amazing how people can interpret the same thing in radically different ways. It happens in every area of life, such as art, politics, sport, social media trends etc. It’s what makes human existence beautiful, absurd, and sometimes infuriating.

But what informs these value judgements, interpretations, and understandings?

However much we believe they are, our thoughts and judgments are not objective. I like using examples of music in TV and film as something that can completely change what we see and how we feel.

There are many things we choose to bring to our inner ears. For example, the news and information sources we draw on, the media we consume, the people and communities we spend time with, the activities we invest time and energy in, and the places we visit all contribute to our soundtrack.

How do they leave the world looking?

There are less intentional sources, too, like experiences/values/beliefs that informed and shaped our foundational assumptions about ourselves, others, and the world.

This mixing pot of inner soundtrack subtly influences how we filter and see everything.

The Sound Harbour is a place to slow down, rest, and reposition ourselves in the ocean of noise. It’s an opportunity to pause the inner soundtrack and open room within so that we can be less reactive to what we believe we see and more gentle in our relationship with our words, thoughts, and actions. I want to create space where we can become slower to draw conclusions and cast judgements about ourselves, others, and the meaning of things over time.

Learn more about it here.

I enjoy working with people to increase their awareness of the background music accompanying everyday life. Being able to distinguish the narratives behind the music and how they influence our perceptions can be liberating. By acknowledging and consciously choosing how we perceive, interpret, and react to people, situations, and experiences, we have more opportunities to make informed decisions.

A Sound Harbour For a Noisy World

For introverted and sensitive types especially, the rhythms and pacing demanded of us in different life areas often goes against our natural metronome. There is pressure to compete, perform, and operate at an overwhelming, destructive, and ultimately unproductive pace. Over time it can leave us altogether out of sync with ourselves and our lives. Not to mention feeling like there’s something fundamentally wrong with us because our bodies can’t keep up with the pace.

While we might be able to stretch ourselves and operate at an energy-bending pace for short bursts, it’s not a soundtrack we can dance to for long before we get overwhelmed and burnout start knocking at the door.

We can’t force rest and recovery. But, if we see everything through a lens of urgency, then that’s how we will think about those things too. Rest becomes something to add on, rush, and accomplish, rather than something to open space for it to do its thing.

The Sound Harbour is somewhere to begin. To pause, observe, and notice what’s going on within.

I’d love you to join me. Watch the video below to gauge the vibe and sign up here if it resonates.

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