Eliminate Noise to Reduce Stress

By Lee Blue

If you’ve been feeling stressed out lately, you’re not alone. Stress is an accepted fact of life that most of us have grown accustomed to enduring in our busy lives. And if you are in the minority population of people who don’t feel stressed, the noise of your surrounding environment is likely stressing you, and you don’t even know it.

Whether you are aware of the stress or not, minimizing the noise in your life can significantly reduce stress and increase a sense of well-being and productivity.

There are many types of audio and visual noise that can cause distractions that break concentration and increase stress. There’s the noise of traffic and conversations when we’re walking down the street, but then there’s the subtle everyday noises of our homes and offices that can easily distract us: doors shutting, the television playing, conversations in the next cube, phones ringing, fingers tapping on the keyboard. A study conducted by Cornell University found that office workers exposed to constant noise showed physiological signs of stress, even though they did not report feeling stressed at all. Not only does the noise distract you, but it can be stressing you and you don’t even realize it.