My Neighbors Are Making Incredibly Loud Noise While Renovating

And I am surprised by my reaction.

My neighbors are renovating their house. For the last week or so , they are demolishing their bathroom tiles, bathtubs floor and etc. And in the process, they are making a hell of a lot of noise.

They did let us know way in advance that they would be renovating and it would be very loud. While we were away during the vacation, they also sent us a letter again explaining the same thing. So I can’t say I wasn’t prepared.

But no matter how much you prepare yourself, this amount of persistent noise for such a prolonged time can be extremely torturous. The worst part is they even worked on Saturday.

Because there is a lockdown going on in the Netherlands, we don’t even have options to go to stores or cafes and spend some time. I was sick this week, which meant I couldn’t go out for my daily walks and evade the noise for a while.

My husband was working from home and he couldn't manage his video calls, even with noise-canceling headphones.

I had to go to the hospital for a test and my husband had to take an office meeting from the hospital parking lot because there was no way you could take calls from home.

When I had an online meeting with someone, this person couldn’t handle the call after some time and asked me how I was able to bear that much noise.

Now the noise is my worst enemy. I can’t even tolerate the background noise of a television or blaring music. It’s a constant source of stress at our house that I keep asking people to reduce the noise level. I can’t even handle a telephone call or a background noise while I am cooking or busy with another chore.

The noise just makes me mad.

However, I realized after a certain point of time, I was only bothered about the noise when I specifically thought about it.

I was not particularly fazed by this loud noise anymore.

When this fact dawned on me, I was surprised by my own reaction. I am the one who is jokingly called “complaintbook.com”, because, you guessed it right, of my rants.

I took some time to think about it and the only thing that I can give credit to is — the last one and half years of meditation practice.

My therapist suggested that I try meditation. On her advice, I started practicing mindfulness and meditation a year and a half ago.

Now, I must admit here that I am no pro when it comes to meditation. I still think of myself as a beginner. Most of the time I find my mind wandering off. I am usually distracted and I question the very purpose of meditation.

But even with all these doubts in my mind, I continued with my routine every morning, even though it was just for a few minutes.

Again, it’s not about being perfect, it’s about showing up.

And now, I indeed see some benefit. I could really isolate my mind from the problem and that is a significant change.

I am empathic, I usually always give priority to other peoples’ feelings over mine but that doesn’t mean that I don’t complain. However, meditation has helped me practice compassion.

So meditation does work wonders. I am now excited to see what other positive changes meditation can bring in the future.

Thank you for reading this.

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