Why I didn’t listen to music for a while (and this is how it is)

No moves done without headphones. Stepping out of the office, first thing I do — headphones! Stepping out of my flat — same thing!

Sometimes I catch myself talking to people with my headphones on. I personally hate it when someone is talking to me with his headphones on. It’s disrespecting, like “nah, you’re not that important for me to take my headphones out of my ears”.

When I realized, that I am always, literally always listening to music, I said to myself “let’s try the opposite”. Said and done, that day I left my headphones in the pocket.

So what happened?

You hear. You hear many things you haven’t heard for a long time. Subway doors closing, babies crying, people talking, many different languages, wind, rain, trains in the far, cars, bikes, nature.

I was sitting in the subway one day without my headphones on and I just listened to my surroundings. I heard people from Italy, Spain and Vienna. They were talking to each other. I heard the subway-calls of the next stations. I heard the wind passing our subway. Door opens, people rushing out and in, peep peep peep, doors closing. You realize that you forgot what it means to hear your surroundings, you almost feel overwhelmed.

The hardest part for me was the travel time from home to the office. Usually I sit there and listen just to music or a good podcast.

What I also usually do, I listen to music while I am working. Not always, but sometimes. Especially when it’s some kind of work where I can need some nice beats motivating me. But without music I also could do it, there was no problem with this at all. What I could hear was my teammates typing their codes and mails into the keyboards. It was loud at first, but you suddenly do not hear it anymore, your brain vanishes the always same staying sounds.

So would I do it again? What is the outcome?

I haven’t even done it for a week. I really got to stay honest to myself, it is hard. It’s like a habit. I do it everyday, and then suddenly I do not do it at all. I needed some time to be fine with the diversity of sounds surrounding me suddenly. But as you may think, you also accustom with this one.

I will definitely do it again, I will try to do it like a “detox” thing for my brain. I want to ensure, that I never forget what it means to hear the nature and just other people talking. I don’t want to take headphones for granted or normal. It just isn’t. People gotta realize that it’s NOT cool to talk with someone with the headphones on. Pull them out. Leave them alone for a day. Try to hear your surroundings. Try to enjoy.