It is not new that I complain here about my noisy neighbors and about the apartment building where I live, which seems like a real acoustic shell, which amplifies any type of sound. Therefore, I will not go back to the details of my problem.

Today, I would like to shed light on the solution. No, unfortunately, I do not bring a “one-size-fits-all” solution, that will suit to all your problems, just a strategy that worked for me and that might work for you, too. It has to do with getting out of your “acoustic shell”. Oh, yes, you do have one, trust me on that.

In this case, what I am calling the acoustic shell has nothing to do with where you live, that is, with external influences, which you, ultimately, cannot control, but with what resonates inside your head. The pattern repetitions that we develop have to do, of course, with such external factors, but they usually go far beyond that.

Our acoustic shell will resonate accordingly to how much we nurture this reaction. Asking yourself; “Is my reaction proportional to the action received, or am I adding a generous dose of other problems to them?” may help you take that step aside, whch allows you to have a provileged view of the situation, thus making it easy to manage a problem or critical situation.

Practical example? I recently finished a task which, in theory, was very pleasant (producing the second season of a podcast about comic art research), but turned out to be a nightmare to medue to my, say, technical diffculties.

During over ten weeks I was busy recording and editintg episodes, repeating to myself “get real” mantras (“I volunteered for the chore, nobody asked me to. I did it because I wanted, I made my choice” etc). Despite my goodwill, it did not work at all and I spent the whle time feeling a mix of self-pity and anger.

Okay, but where is the magical solution?, you ask yourself.

The solution (I never said it would be magical), darling is to take things as a grown up. Am I saying you should mute your inner child? Yes, but only for a short time, just enough for you to remember that doing stuff we would rather not is part of life, but it is not the only one.

Grown ups know that, although most of our life is fullfiled by obligations that do not always make sense to us there is also the other part: the things we do because we are passionate about, because we believe they must be done, we believe they must exist.

Stepping aside for a moment, I finally could see the situation through a diffferent perspective and, suddenly, there was no room for feeling miserable anymore. I did what I had to do, and I did it professionaly. Frankly, the result is quite good (check it out), despite the circunstances.

Another thing that grown ups know is how great it feels to get the job done.

Be seeing you!

G.F.