What is "Noise"?
Noise can and will occur in communication process, let's discuss one component of Noise that is "Psychological Noise"
Psychological noise interferes with communication
Psychological noise is mental interference in the speaker or listener.
Three examples of psychological noise are wandering thoughts, preconceived ideas, and sarcasm.
“Wandering thoughts” can be a kind of psychological noise
This is primarily a listener problem. If you’re trying to communicate a concept in your podcast, “wandering thoughts” is an obstacle because your listener may be distracted and have difficulty keeping up with you. This is often a problem when talking about abstract ideas.
Sometimes as speakers, we cause a listener’s thoughts to wander, especially if we talk too fast, too slow, or fail to pause.
But occasionally “wandering thoughts” can be a concentration problem, too. Have you ever started talking about one point only to find yourself lost talking about something completely unrelated? It takes a lot of concentration (and maybe planning) to stay focused.
“Preconceived ideas” can be a kind of psychological noise
Another type of psychological noise is when people think they already know something. That noise interferes with a listener’s willingness to hear a new perspective.
Other preconceived ideas include biases, prejudices, presuppositions, and closed-mindedness.
When there is psychological noise like this, you have to work harder than usual to make sure you’re communicating clearly.
“Sarcasm” can be a kind of psychological noise
If you don’t care to actually persuade someone to see things your way, then sarcasm is the easy way.
Sarcasm is noise to your listener unless your listener already agrees with you.If your listener disagrees with you, then sarcasm guarantees they won’t pay attention to your message.
Sarcasm can also rile them up. When they come back at you with their knee-jerk response, that’ll be noise to you.
And then true communication stops.
Finally, there is another type of noise that appears to be psychological, but it’s actually linguistic and deserves its own category.
Now where does Shanti Mantra comes in?
When we utter Shanti Mantra it makes us focused and relaxed leading to a better communication experience, it can be fruitful to repeat this before any important communication exercise for fruitful results.
ॐ द्यौः शान्तिरन्तरिक्षं शान्तिः
पृथिवी शान्तिरापः शान्तिरोषधयः शान्तिः ।
वनस्पतयः शान्तिर्विश्वेदेवाः शान्तिर्ब्रह्म शान्तिः
सर्वं शान्तिः शान्तिरेव शान्तिः सा मा शान्तिरेधि ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Meaning:
1: Om, Peace is in Sky; Peace is in Space (between Earth and Sky);
2: Peace is in Earth; Peace is in Water; Peace is in Plants;
3: Peace is in Trees; Peace is in Gods (presiding over the various elements of Nature); Peace is in Brahman (Absolute Consciousness);
4: Peace is pervading everywhere; Peace alone (which is outside) is in Peace (which is inside); May you be (established in) that Peace (and make your life fulfilled);
5: Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.
Inner Peace makes you better listeners and speakers leading to most effective conversation!
Peace Yo!
