Sounds into Landscapes
With these drawings I am exploring what I can hear both externally and internally, in particular tinnitus and how both external and internal sounds can merge together making it difficult to focus on voices. When hearing through hearing aids one has to learn to focus attention on what one wants to hear. With wearing hearing aids and experiencing tinnitus I began to understand that we don't all hear in the same way.
Listening and hearing became a fascinating subject to explore. With these drawings I began to turn sounds into landscapes as a way of making sense of, and coming to terms with, a great deal of noise. A sort of self-soothing to lift my positive emotions before my attention negatively narrowed in to these sounds.
Drawing tinnitus helped me to focus on listening to tinnitus in an indirect way to desensitise myself and to express my thought and feelings about tinnitus.
With my Drawing Tinnitus workshops the aim is to help us accept tinnitus as a non-threatening symptom and to become curious about the sounds we hear and why we may be hearing them.
When we are drawing and using imagination and creativity we use selective attention, a process whereby we can choose what to focus our attention on.
Drawing is a calming activity and enables us to associate tinnitus with a more peaceful way of living in the moment.
By focusing on the sounds of tinnitus while doing a relaxing activity such as drawing or meditation, the brain starts to associate the positive experiences of relaxation and calm with the tinnitus sounds. The fear response, or anger or upset that you associate tinnitus with, begins to diminish and you begin to respond differently. Drawing the tinnitus can help you to habituate to the sounds, a natural process enabling you to become less bothered by them.