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Staying calm when construction noise disrupts your day: A sound meditation and conscious listening guide

Updated: Sep 8


A woman sits in lotus position, meditating in a busy city.
A woman sits meditating amidst a busy city.

Construction noise began. Loud and jarring, and just as I sat down to record some guided meditations with my brand new microphone. The quiet morning I had planned, was no more, life, it seemed, had other ideas.


My first reaction was frustration, but then I paused. What if this noise wasn’t an interruption, but an invitation to practise what I teach my clients? In sound meditation, we learn to treat all sound, even unwanted noise, as part of the experience. As Bruce Lee said, “Be water, my friend.”


In this article, I’ll explore how construction noise (or any loud disruption) can become a tool for mindfulness, emotional awareness, and resilience. What if we could learn not just to endure noise, but to transform how we respond to it, with presence, curiosity and calm? 


How noise triggers stress: what happens to your brain and body

When we hear a sound, it’s an active experience where the ears pick up the noise and send it to the brain for processing. Our entire body responds. Every sound is then decoded by our auditory system, as well as by our skin, our organs, and our brain.


As the sound vibrates through us it triggers both emotional and physical responses, and as such, this is how noise affects the brain. The body the reacts to these vibrations, often recalling past memories and experiences. The sound of a bell ringing, for instance, might invoke memories of lunch time at school, while the sound of a dog barking might trigger irritability, based on past associations.


So, when I heard the construction noise outside my window, I didn’t just hear it with my ears. My entire being responded. My body’s response to the noise was an elevated heart rate, tension in my shoulders, and a shallow breath. 


My mind raced with thoughts of how I could escape or shut it out. Then I realised this noise, aside from being agitating, had pushed me to take on an old role; that being the blame and procrastination game. It was familiar, even strangely comfortable. But this moment gave me a chance to pause, observe and choose a different response.


This is where the practice of self-awareness comes into play. By understanding the physiological and emotional responses that sound triggers within us, we can begin to gain control over our reactions. We can stop being slaves to automatic responses and instead, actively choose how we engage with our environment. In that space of awareness, we are no longer reactors to the external world, we are actors, responding with intention, and that in itself is empowering.


The science of sound and vibration: Why some noises agitate you

As hard as I tried to find peace with the construction noise, I could not. No matter how long I sat there tuning-in the more agitated, irritated and stressed I became. The sound was dissonant. So aside from packing up shop and heading to a local café or running from the noise, I became curious and allowed the sound to be dissonant. To be what it was: aggravating and jarring.


As I listened more deeply, I noticed there wasn’t one solid tone, but many waves. There was a depth to it, and a void inside that. I tried to go inside that void, I hoped to arrive at a state of non-reactivity, but I did not.


What I did arrive at was partial acceptance. I could accept the existence of the sound without breaking into a rage about it, and I could also accept that the sound truly did aggravate me.


This is where understanding the concepts of sound: entrainment and resonance, become useful. Both describe how we interact with the vibrations in our environment. Entrainment is when your brain or body syncs to external rhythms, and is pulled in by the sound, dominated by the stronger rhythm. This most often happens without our conscious awareness. Resonance is about alignment, when a sound amplifies your inner state through a kind of energy exchange. It’s not just matching a frequency, but a transfer that strengthens what is already there.


Our bodies and brains operate with natural rhythms: heartbeats, breathing patterns, brainwaves. Nature also has rhythms: waves, wind, birds, light cycles. When an external frequency aligns with a natural frequency of the body or an organ, the energy transfers more efficiently, and the effect is amplified. Resonance is more like tuning in, rather than being pulled in.


Key sound principles to know:

  • Entrainment: Your brain or body syncing to external rhythms

  • Resonance: When a sound amplifies your inner state

  • Dissonance: Sound frequencies that create tension or discomfort

  • Harmonic alignment: Frequencies that feel calming or “right”


What musical frequencies like F sharp do to your nervous system

Still curious about the effect of construction noise on my body, I used my phone tuner to find out that the frequency of the construction noise was around 91.8 Hz, or close to an F sharp (this is not an exact reading, the phone tuner is limited).


Interestingly, composers have historically used F sharp to evoke restlessness or mystical suspension. The body may not hear this note as music, but we can be viscerally attuned to its tonal quality.


Low-frequency sounds in this range are often felt more than heard, vibrating in the chest or abdomen. This helped me reframe the construction noise, as not just irritating, but as part of the city’s own unfolding soundtrack. Can you identify frequencies in your environment that either energise or unsettle you? Try listening now.


...composers have historically used F sharp to evoke restlessness or mystical suspension.

This realisation brought me back to the central question: How do we take conscious control over this process? How do we resist the urge to automatically react with irritation or frustration when something, like construction noise, is outside our control? In my own experiment with this, I discovered just how difficult it can be.


What is harmony?

Thinking about F sharp led me to reflect on harmony itself and why some sounds feel pleasant, others dissonant. Harmony can act as a guide to notice how sounds impact your body and mind, helping you stay aware of what resonates and what unsettles you.


At its simplest, harmony arises when sounds are related by natural ratios. You can feel harmony in your body: a sense of ease and balance. And you can feel dissonance too, when a sound jars or unsettles you. Theory aside, my body didn’t care, I was still affected by the construction noise, so I did the practical thing: I went to the cafe.


Common physical reactions to noise: Increased heart rate or blood pressure Shallow breathing or tight chest Muscle tension (especially neck and shoulders) Irritability or heightened emotional response Disrupted focus or sleep

How to find your inner calm when life gets loud

And that’s when it struck me: life often does this. We get thrown off-balance by noise, not just literal construction noise, but the noise and stress of demands, deadlines, grief, and uncertainty. We spend so much time pulled to the edge that we forget we have a centre to return to. One of my clients once described this beautifully as, bringing himself back to centre, a phrase that captures both the choice and the practice of returning to balance.


It's important to note, however, that resonance doesn’t always imply peace. Sometimes we resonate with what’s familiar, even chaos or pain, because our bodies know it. That too is resonance, but not harmony.


Noise will always come. The question is how do we stay calm in the chaos, can we ground ourselves and choose what we resonate with. Some parts of life scream, others whisper. What we resonate with isn’t always healing. Harmony helps us notice when we’re aligned, or not.


Tips to stay calm during unexpected noise:

  • Practice slow, rhythmic breathing

  • Focus on one sound rather than the chaos

  • Reframe noise as part of the environment, not an enemy

  • Use headphones with nature sounds or white noise

  • Physically relocate if necessary (café, library, outdoors).


Sound meditation: How to use environmental noise to reduce stress

Curious how certain frequencies affect your emotions? Pay attention to how your body reacts to everyday sounds, and start building your own sound map, of what calms, what triggers, and what grounds you.


Mindfulness exercise

How to meditate in noisy places: Stress relief through sound

Sit quietly and begin to listen.


  • What sounds do you hear?

  • What directions are they coming from?

  • Pick one sound and deeply focus on it.

  • Can you resonate with the sound? Or do you find yourself resisting it?

  • Try to sing, move, hum, or breathe in the sound’s rhythm.

  • Can you live inside the sound even with unresolved tension?

  • Can you tune into other ambient sounds and create a musical chord, for example, cars swooshing combined with construction?

  • Now listen deeper. Can you find the silence within the sounds? If so, rest here as long as you can, consciously moving focus between sound and silence.


Conscious listening: Tune into what heals and what harms

Listening deeply to the construction noise made me also consider the deeper question: what in my life is screaming, frustrating and agitating me, and which is also impossible to ignore, pushing me toward irritation or rage? And what is whispering, so quiet it requires me to really focus to hear it?


Noise will always be present, inside and outside of us. Sometimes we resonate with what’s harmful, not healing. Other times, we connect with what restores balance. The key is awareness.


And, remember that resonance does not always imply inner peace. It reflects connection or amplification, but whether that connection is healing or harmful depends on context.


"...resonance doesn’t always imply peace. Sometimes we resonate with what’s familiar, even chaos or pain, because our bodies know it. That too is resonance, but not harmony."

Mindful awareness through sound

By noticing what we resonate with, we can turn environmental noise into a conscious listening practice.  With mindful awareness through sound, we are able to return to our centre and offset the emotional effects of noise  – physically, mentally, and emotionally. We do this by consciously choosing what sounds to engage with, what to amplify, and what to let pass. This is the practice of conscious listening, in sound and in life.


Next time you’re triggered by noise, pause. Tune in. Ask yourself: What am I really resonating with?



References



This article is authored by Nicole Sultana, who holds a Post Graduate Degree in Spiritual Care, a Post Graduate Certificate in Business (Marketing), and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Sports & Exercise. In addition, she is a Certified Therapeutic Sound Practitioner and a Death Doula. Nicole is the founder of Sound Consciousness, a company that offers wellbeing strategies and therapeutic sound practices to help individuals achieve peak performance in their professional lives, sporting endeavours, relationships, and personal aspirations.


If you found this article meaningful, leave a comment and share it with someone else who may benefit. Sharing our experiences helps us all learn, grow, and heal together. We welcome lively discussions, as they contribute to our multifaceted humanity. Let's remember to approach discussions with respect and kindness at heart.


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