Put a Book in Your Ear

A couple years ago I started listening to audiobooks with my library card and the Libby App. This pairing has dramatically changed my life! Listening to memoirs, books about health and wellness, a few books about physics, conscious awareness and mindfulness, and a smattering of fiction has calmed my body and soul. Everybody I run into who is stressed out, worried or in any way unhappy gets my suggestion, "Put a book in your ear. It'll do wonders for you!"

Hiding behind the Thai Basil harvest with a book in my ear

When I started "reading" by listening, I never imagined it would impact me physically. Little by little I began to sense a calming. I never knew I had so much anxiety in my past life until this quiet gradually seeped into me.

I recall the years I lived and worked in Minneapolis and now understand the misery I felt around my job. There were days I was so stressed out, worried that I wasn't good enough, worried I couldn't manage all the requirements, worried I'd fail somehow, that I literally shook all day long. I taught for 25 years. I lived in a perpetual state of stress for 25 years. No wonder I ended up needing a pacemaker! My autonomic and sympathetic nervous systems were completely out of wack.

Self-Help as a genre was never something I would have chosen to read imagining myself strong and level-headed, but as I read memoirs, I began to hear about people's paths to healing. In turn, curiosity led me to read and learn about trauma, anxiety, and stress, and from there, to learn about meditation, breath work and consciousness.

You might think I've gone all woo woo spending hours on a meditation pillow or doing all sorts of funky breathing exercises, but that's not at all the case. I have found that the benefits of all that can actually be found in the simple act of listening to books! I have come to believe that we don't really need to do anything but to tune out. Mindfulness seems to arise on it's own if we can quiet our incessantly racing brains. I have found that by tuning my thoughts into something to learn, I have been able to quiet my nerves. For me, the idea that I learn something while listening seems crucial.

In my younger years I couldn't get through a non-fiction book if my life depended on it! I found them absolutely boring and would always prefer fiction. Now, strangely enough, I can barely read fiction! It strikes me as trivial and incredibly boring. My brain needs to be engaged in ideas. I literally crave learning. When I find a book that engages my brain I feel that quiet sense of calm.

Of course, the fact that I no longer hold a paycheck job and spend so much time in nature no doubt has impacted my nervous system as well. I'd recommend to anyone who lives under constant stress to put a book in your ear, tune out and go for a long walk.

Let me know if you've read anything you think I'd like. I'm always looking for recommendations. Two I'd suggest:

1. What We Carry by Maya Shanbhag Lang

2. The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie M. Paul

The leaves are turning out here in Farmlandia and jeez louise, has the weather been beautiful! Stop out if you get the chance.

Sending love from the farm,

Sarah