Understanding the Impact of Common Noises on Health and Strategies for Mindful Listening Practice

In the year 2025, Jesse Rosenfeld's groundbreaking book, "Sound Affects," shines a spotlight on the often overlooked impact of sound on human psyche and wellbeing.

Sound, in its various forms, permeates our lives. From the unheard symphony of nature and the universe, to the man-made sounds that fill our cities, each resonates within us, affecting our physical health and mental clarity.

Geophony, the natural sounds that emanate from the physical world, can be surprisingly beneficial. Hearing geophonic sound patterns can lower heart rate, sync with breathing patterns, and reduce stress hormones. Practicing geophonic listening for ten minutes each day can reconnect individuals with sound patterns that have supported human wellbeing for thousands of generations.

On the other hand, Anthropophony, the human-made soundscape, includes all noises made by people and their inventions. While it can be strategically used by businesses to influence behaviour, such as playing slower music in grocery stores to make customers browse longer, it can also be a source of acoustic pollution. Most people have no control over the human sounds around them, and this acoustic pollution can be just as harmful as air pollution, but receives far less attention.

The practice of tuning into biophony involves spending a few minutes each day listening specifically to living sounds in the environment. Exposure to rich biophonic environments can measurably improve human health and cognitive abilities. Biophony encompasses every species on Earth, all of whom have evolved unique ways to create and detect biological sounds.

Silence, too, plays a crucial role in our wellbeing. It acts as a powerful tool for sharpening your listening skills and reducing stress hormones, improving memory, and enhancing creative thinking. In modern cities, where sound levels are often unimaginably high, finding silence can be a rare and precious experience.

Listening to cosmophony, the acoustic phenomena generated by cosmic events, can profoundly shift your perspective on your place in the universe and connect you to processes that have been unfolding for billions of years. Every planet, moon, and star creates its own unique acoustic signature, and the sun itself constantly rings like a giant bell.

Conscious listening isn't just a personal practice - it's an act of environmental awareness, social connection, and cultural healing. You can take control of your sound environment by setting aside time to note the human-made sounds you encounter, noticing which sounds make you feel tense and which ones bring you peace, and making small changes to reduce negative anthropophony in your daily life.

So, the next time you find yourself in a noisy environment, remember that the question isn't whether sound affects you, but how you'll choose to engage with the acoustic universe surrounding you.

Understanding the Impact of Common Noises on Health and Strategies for Mindful Listening Practice