Tuning Out the Noise

Odie in his natural habitat

As I sit here writing to the sound of saws, I’m once again drawn to my theme: Tuning Out the Noise.

For the last year and a half, our neighbors have been in the midst of a major home renovation. I’m talking full interior gut, new roof, plus a pool, pool house, and extensive landscaping. To be fair, my neighbor kindly came over before construction began with a gift basket and a heads-up about the impending chaos. Still, the noise has been… relentless.

Even before the construction started, my once-quiet world was already shifting. My son moved in with his newly adopted pup, Odie. Odie is a sweet boy who carries quite a bit of trauma from being rescued off the streets. That trauma shows up as extreme reactivity—aka barking. When my son is home, Odie is mostly calm. When he leaves for work, Odie’s anxiety rises, and so does the barking.

At the same time all of this was unfolding, I was in the process of building my hypnotherapy and Yoga Nidra business. Needless to say, constant noise is not exactly ideal for meditative recordings, client sessions, or even my own personal practice. Thankfully, I eventually found an office space with reasonable rent where peace and quiet were more reliable.

Before that refuge appeared, I endured what I jokingly called “Barking Dog Meditation.” I figured if I could meditate through incessant barking, maybe it would strengthen my practice. Every time I sat down to meditate, Odie would find something to bark at. Once the construction began, it wasn’t just barking—it was pounding, sawing, backhoes, and grinding. Truly, the level of noise became almost laughable.

Over time, sweet Odie began to settle. We worked with him, and his barking has greatly diminished. The construction has moved through its own ebbs and flows, leaving longer stretches of silence. While the quiet can’t be fully trusted—everything could erupt again at any moment—it’s far less constant. On good days, I can even work from home.

Right before Christmas, I was at my office recording a Yoga Nidra practice. The chiropractic office downstairs was closed, so I felt hopeful. I began recording, everything flowing smoothly… until a neighborhood dog started barking. I paused, waiting for it to stop. It didn’t. Ten minutes passed. Fifteen. I started laughing. What is it with all the dog barking? I wondered.

Then my concern kicked in. Is the dog okay? Why isn’t anyone checking on him? Is he being mistreated? My internal noise rose in response to the external noise. This cannot be happening, I laughed to myself. Thirty minutes later, the dog was still barking. I abandoned the recording and went home.

And that’s when it really landed for me.

We cannot escape external noise. Unless you have hearing loss, you are continually immersed in sound. Pause for a moment and listen—the hum of the refrigerator, the furnace cycling on, an airplane overhead. In Yoga Nidra, we often use external sounds as part of the practice, inviting them in as objects of awareness, meeting them with beginner’s mind and curiosity.

What’s fascinating is that sound itself isn’t the true disturbance. External noise becomes disruptive when it triggers an internal reaction—annoyance, frustration, anger, worry. The noise isn’t causing our suffering; our response to it is. Suddenly we’re dealing with both external and internal noise, and our peace is gone.

Even in the most perfectly quiet meditation space, we still face the noise of the mind. Streams of thought, stories, memories, plans—our minds are endlessly noisy. Yet somehow, we’re often more tolerant of that internal chatter than a barking dog.

So, what do we do?

We anchor.

Use your breath as your home base. Gently place your attention on your natural breath. When you do, it becomes harder for the mind to spin off into its familiar tangents. Thoughts will arise—that’s not a problem. The moment you notice, simply return to the breath. Again and again. That’s the practice.

Yoga Nidra and hypnotherapy offer powerful ways to work with both external and internal noise—not by fighting it or tuning it out, but by changing your relationship to it. Through guided practices, you learn to settle the nervous system, soften reactivity, and access a deeper sense of inner quiet that isn’t dependent on perfect conditions.

✨ If you’re longing for more peace—regardless of what’s happening around you—I invite you to explore Yoga Nidra or hypnotherapy with me. These practices meet you exactly where you are and help you cultivate calm, clarity, and resilience from the inside out.

Because true quiet isn’t the absence of noise—it’s the presence of awareness.