How to Live Quietly in the City

Tips by Quiet Mark founder Poppy Szkiler

Everyone knows that mindfulness, meditation and peace in the house can lead to a longer and more healthy life. However avoiding noise in the city can be difficult but here are some small steps to leading a quieter life in the city by Poppy Szkiler, founder of Quiet Mark which awards household products for their proactive participation in noise reduction.

– Schedule 'Quiet-Time' every morning – no matter how busy life gets I schedule in 'quiet-time' every day like I would schedule a gym class, I will sit in my favourite chair in silence away from everything and everyone, listening attentively to what I hear from the 'still small voice of calm' I write down ideas that come, listen for answers to challenges I'm facing, it's like putting my mobile phone on charge, if I don't have my quiet time the rest of the day can go out of tune with direction, quiet time anchors you to the truth of where things are at, something extraordinary happens to the rest of your life when you ring-fence this time daily. Quiet Mark was born in my own quiet-time, the life changing benefits are surprisingly profound from doing something so simple, and it's free!

– Guard yourself from harmful noise during the day – I plan my week choosing places, flights, travel, restaurants, hotels, which have a supportive quieter environment where at all possible. The noise levels in New York are deafening when you hear piercing sirens, heavy trucks, dominating machinery and subway noise on the work commute it all adds up to an assault on your ears when stepping out on the street every-day. Choosing to invest in quality noise cancelation headsets, setting up or investing in a work space to protect your focus and not drain your energy.

– Look out for the Quiet Mark on awarded products when shopping the Quiet Mark is starting to appear in U.S. retailers with easy award symbol to show that product has been expertly lab-tested and found to be one of the quietest in its category. You never know how loud an appliance is going to be until you get it home, then can be stuck with it for years. Quiet Mark solves this. If we all chose to 'buy-quiet' we will put serious pressures on global manufacturers of every type of technology and living space design to invest more of their budgets into acoustic design research and development, we can change the aural environment by voting with our credit cards to create a consumer movement which demands supportive sound or reduced noise levels from the technology which surrounds us.

– Be thoughtful about your own 'sound-footprint' I think about the sound I make, in my car, to my neighbours, not speaking really loudly on mobile phone, checking my headphones don't leak on public transport to annoy the person next to me. The revelation of how much sound output which is unnecessary or avoidable is the beginning of restoring a healthy soundscape to our living spaces.

– Watch IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE critically acclaimed feature documentary by Patrick Shen, the beautifully filmed meditative thought piece on global noise pollution received rave reviews from cinemas across the globe last year, it gives a full understanding that noise is now the biggest killer next to air pollution as stated by World Health Organisation, featuring chapter on Quiet Mark award programme as a global solution. In addition to the film being full of education, I also find that it has a quiet, calming effect on me after viewing.
www.quietmark.com