Positive Story: Mindfulness Helped Me Through a Tough Situation

Thought this would be a little nice positive post here.

So since I last touched base with my tinnitus clinician last year, she really encouraged me to try implementing more mindfulness/CBT tools into my everyday life. As is discussed often on this forum, many people have a hard time adjusting to loud and sudden sounds.

While I know there are many different types of mindfulness/CBT. For me, it has been mostly made up of me analyzing my thoughts, limiting the "what ifs", and focusing on the present.

Today, that came into practice. I was sitting at a pub with a friend, when one of the bar patrons by accident tipped over one of the metal bar chairs, and it crashed onto the cement floor about 5 meters away (they really do need hard wood over the cement!).

It startled everyone, especially me with my tinnitus and mild hyperacusis. My friend who was with me asked if I was ok. I just took a moment, took a breath, told myself that while it was loud, it was just a sudden sound and that I am doing ok. I went right back to enjoying my beer and enjoying the rest of the day .

While my tinnitus sounds a bit louder, I am sure it's just from being out and about today, and due to me having a couple of beers and I'm sure it will settle by tomorrow.

Just wanted to share this little positive story.

 

I find myself unintentionally in situations where there are loud noises and I deal with it like yourself. It's just life and we make the best of it. Great story of courage.

 

Thanks Michael! I definitely agree.

I remember one of the best pieces of advice when I first dealing with my T 4 years ago, was my T clinician said:

"If you want to be apart of the regular world, you need to accept that you can't control and protect from every sound. Accidents will happen, but it's how you deal with them and move forward is what counts".

It was after that, I was finally able to move forward and get back to school and move forward with my life.

 

Thanks for sharing That is literally me when something unexpected and loud happens - first I get a little heart-attack, then just trying to take a deep breath and forget about it, it really shows a persons mentally strength i think! Keep up the good work!

 

This is a good thing @kmohoruk. It seems like the therapy helped you deal with that issue. Stuff like this does help me to this day.