I was thinking about sound. More specifically about how we percieve sound and how we listen. I have a question, which I think has an obvious question, but I would like to be sure.
Do you think in audio (sound)? Does it come naturally to you?
Maybe I'm weird like that, but for me it's kind of hard to think with sound. I think I am more of a abstract-visual type if that exists .
This is a topic I have been thinking about lately too! (great minds think alike )
I'm definitely an abstract thinker, something which I never would have considered myself until I found the Bates Method. I used to think that I was a Visual thinker. But when I started working with the Bates Method and practicing 'perfect imagination' i realized right away that it was very difficult to have perfect imagination, and so therefore...I'm not a visual thinker as it turns out, but a more abstract, emotional, and analytical thinker. However, since improving my eyesight I have also improved my ability to think in detailed, visual pictures.
This led me to question my other four senses: is there more to my hearing/touch/smelling/taste than I've realized until now? Taking them one by one, I've started with how I listen (it seemed an obvious next step). I definitely don't do more with sound than 'get through my day' which is exactly how I used to use my eyes. So I spent a day 'noticing' sound - all sound - sound I usually never paid attention to before, sound that I would describe as the visual equivalent of blur - that hazy, background sound. To my surprise, this exercise left me as disoriented and anxious as I felt when I first ditched my glasses and started Bates. It was a little..frightening, irritating, strange. But I was interested again in the audio-world around me, something that only happens when I hear great music.
I think we are creatures of habit and that the habits of navigating our world begin to solidify in childhood. By the time we are adults we don't even remember anymore how there used to be a time in our life when everything was new and our way of perceiving the world was always changing..
So in conclusion (to a long post) - just because you don't think with sound now doesn't mean you can't, As an example, just think of all that you have gained from using the Bates Method!
Exactly. I actually find that it's quite relaxing to just sort of "tune in" to the background sound and not think about anything else. It's VERY difficult, but also very rewarding when done correctly. It can also be frustrating though: like when you remind yourself not to think of anything and then start thinking about not thinking of anything. The mind does strange things...
And in response to seetheleaves's comment about habits solidifying in childhood: I'm not sure when if ever habits truly solidify, but the way I see it, by the time you can think about correcting your habits, they have probably already solidified - or you wouldn't have thought about them in the first place! Like many Bates method related things, it's mentally frustrating and paradoxical.
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