Image by Ulrike Mai
The complex process of hearing is connected to symmetry and balance. Let us consider 2 special cases of hearing disorders.
TINNITUS: Have I done something wrong?
Tinnitus, the subjective sensation of a noise such as a high-pitched ringing, hum, knocking, or a roaring that can only be heard by the one affected, has become a widespread problem.
The reasons for the increase in this condition have not been clearly established by conventional medicine. There are, of course, environmental and physiological causes such as loud noise or inflammation of the ear. Holistic medicine has found that a trigger for tinnitus can also be a traumatic life event.
Last but not least, stress is considered a significant factor; however, in our work with hearing we have found that stress is not exactly a trigger but more a booster of the existing noise of the tinnitus.
Our approach to understanding the causes of tinnitus assumes that there is an acoustic signal created by the brain due to a traumatic experience. The assumption that tinnitus actually occurs in the brain is supported by cases in which the perceived sound in the ear could not be stopped, even by cutting or severingthe auditory nerve. This aside, it is always important to fix any purely physical causes such as tension, especially in the neck and shoulders, if it is found to be a factor in the tinnitus.
In addition to the enormous burden of never-ending noise in the ear, those who are affected by this condition often have difficulty correctly orienting themselves to their environment. They no longer accurately perceive where a sound is coming from and how they themselves are involved in an acoustic event.
A subtle sense of insecurity and even threat arises as a result, along with social isolation that comes from not being involved in the surrounding environment. Even if you have learned to live with the noise, there is often a fear that the tinnitus could grow worse, to the point where you can no longer cope.
At its core I consider tinnitus to be an event that represents the physical manifestation of a mental conflict. Therefore, the best approach is to resolve the underlying theme to establish new regulation and healing. This is true in the following case, in which there is ostensibly an organic cause of the tinnitus.
Eardrum Burst during a Concert
Mr. S.: “At a concert my eardrum burst and since then I have tinnitus.”
We all notice when something is not good for us, when we go beyond our limits, be it physical limits or the limits of social pressure (“Come on, don’t act like that!”). Such was the case of Mr. S., who, against his better judgment attended a loud rock concert, whereupon his eardrum burst. It’s not uncommon in such a situation for self-condemnation to arise: “If I hadn’t gone to that concert, I wouldn’t have suffered that injury. That was a big mistake.”
Of course, conventional medicine declared that the eardrum had burst because it was too loud at the concert. But why didn’t the eardrum heal? Why did it turn into the never-ending noise of tinnitus? If the cause was only mechanical, everyone at the concert would have had the same injury to the ears; however, this was clearly not the case. So the crucial issue was not a physical overload due to the volume of the music but rather Mr. S.’s self-condemnation and unprocessed shock.
We all make mistakes. It’s part of life. It is important that we do not give up or resign ourselves to being at fault but begin to process the error. Tinnitus is like a wound that doesn’t heal because the thoughts and fears that are associated with the triggering event have not been resolved.
We have found that working on healing tinnitus—especially when you’ve been suffering from strong ear noises for a long time and hear the ringing constantly—requires a lot of patience. We usually speak of a period of 1 to 2 years before we can get relief.
The reason is because such a long-lasting condition always reflects conflicts in key areas of life. Resolving these life issues takes time, knowledge, and implementation in real life. It’s hard work that takes a lot of energy, but such therapeutic work also provides opportunities and a new vision of the meaning and goals of one’s life.
Of course, there’s always the possibility that this condition will simply disappear; however, it’s best not to create these kinds of expectations, because the hope for instantaneous relief generates pressure and counteracts the process of healing.
Basically, tinnitus is the result of a conflict of self-worth, of how you feel about yourself: Am I correct? Can I do it? I can’t solve this!
Daughter Refuses to See Mother in Hospital
Mrs. G. told me about the start of her tinnitus: “Some years ago I was in the hospital. Ever since then I’ve had tinnitus. So far I’ve always thought that the cause was incorrectly administered medication. By thinking back as to whether the cause could be psychological, I immediately remembered something. While in the hospital I asked my good friend and neighbor to inform my daughter, with whom I had no contact for 15 years. When my friend came back to the hospital to see me the next day she told me that my daughter had asked her, ‘Is it life-threatening?’ My friend told her that it was serious but not life-threatening. Then my daughter said, ‘Then I’m not coming.’ That hit me really hard. Shortly after that, the tinnitus started.”
The following steps for the relief of the tinnitus phenomenon may serve as a guide to gaining insight and eventual healing:
- What do I want? What state do I want to achieve? This doesn’t mean explaining what you don’t want but rather defining where you do wish to go, what you want out of life in general.
- Inventory the noise: What sounds do I hear exactly (a knocking, a whistling)? On which side of my head do I perceive the noise?
- History and chronology: Since when have I heard the noise? When did the noise occur for the first time? When did the sound change? Are there situations, times of the day, when the sound changes? Did new sounds come along?
- Time of inception: What was the situation when the noise first came about? How did I feel? What happened? The idea here is to explore the triggering event for the tinnitus and to find out what happened. What feelings and thoughts did I have at the time? Often there are thoughts and feelings of guilt and failure.
- Establishment of a listening area: After following steps 1 through 4, we now have a starting point.
- Body geometry: This involves the resolution of physical causes such as tension. If, for example, certain head positions intensify the tinnitus, these physical tensions must be worked on. This book includes various exercises; as well, the expert hands of a professional osteopath, chiropractor, or sensitive healer can sometimes work wonders.
- Identify and document changes: When is the tinnitus stronger? When does it weaken? Of particularl importance is observing which situations and events put me in stress and therefore strengthen the tinnitus. For this you should keep a diary with exact times and dates, in which all changes in both the intensity and the nature of the sound are recorded.
- Identify conflict issues: Find out exactly when the tinnitus started and what the exact conflict-related issue is. Tinnitus is caused by an emotional trauma that was overwhelming and unsolvable at the moment and since then is more or less latent. The conflict is like a record that has gotten scratched and now always repeats the same theme. If the conflict is not resolved, the regeneration of hearing can take place only on the physical plane, as with the healing of eardrum scarring, but the emotional underpinnings will remain; so without addressing the inner, deep-seated conflict the noise will remain.
- Resolve the conflict and therefore the tinnitus.
- New life, new ways: You can do this all by yourself . . .
VERTIGO: This Will Blow Me Over
The underlying emotional source of dizziness is usually a very stressful and prolonged life situation that I want to back out of—at the same time, I think that I may not be able to. I’m in a kind of dilemma that involves a permanent state of tension. Again, as always, try to exclude purely physical causes; for example, a shift of the crystals in the semicircular canals in what is known as vestibular vertigo, the so-called positional vertigo.
Dizziness is always a loss of fine motor control of the body’s system that regulates balance and movement. In standing and walking, our body is in a constant dynamic regulation process; it always -fluctuates around a center, and to maintain balance it’s constantly fine-tuning various balancing movements. Again, these muscle regulations aim to accurately perceive movements and to move with much less effort.
The following breathing exercise is not related to any particular breathing technique. It involves breathing normally and observing how your body acts during inhalation and exhalation.
Exercise: Breathing Consciously
Simply follow your natural breathing rhythm, without -manipulating the breath.
Thoughts may come, and if so, allow them to pass and return to the task of observing your breath. Do this exercise with your eyes open or closed, however you are most comfortable, for 3 minutes. To keep track of time try using a small hourglass, which is not as abrupt as the ringing of a timer. Observe how your body feels after the exercise.
Comments and hints: Commit your undivided attention to perceiving and observing your breath and not being distracted by thoughts, which is difficult for most people. This is a basic meditation exercise. We recommend that you do this exercise over a period of 21 days or longer, and try doing it once or twice a day, to see how it affects your life. If you like it, you will then find your own rhythm.
The ability to detect whether a sound source moves—for example, whether the engine noise comes from a moving or a stationary car, or whether the singer I’m listening to moves in the room or not—is an important part of our sense of hearing. This skill is part of our survival equipment. If a noise source is not moving but I perceive it as moving, then this might trigger or reinforce my dizziness. Bringing the correct location of the noise source back into line with what we hear is an important aspect of the regulation of vertigo.
Depending on the strength of dizziness issue we have to be very careful and must go slowly. It’s all about long-term stabilization and not short-term success. If the exercises and training while standing are too difficult, then we start while sitting. If it still feels very unsafe when we close our eyes, then we start with open eyes. If the practice seems too strenuous to do for several minutes, we start with a shorter time. What’s important here, as with all the other exercises, is that we create a sense of security so that we can process gradually according to our own needs.
Copyright 2018 and 2020 (translation). All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Healing Arts Press,
an imprint of Inner Traditions Inc. www.innertraditions.com.
Article Source
Restore Hearing Naturally: How to Use Your Inner Resources to Bring Back Full Hearing
by Anton Stucki
Through hearing we are connected with everything that surrounds us. Yet millions of people, young and old, suffer from hearing loss, which disrupts this special connection not only with our surroundings but also with our friends, loved ones, and coworkers. As Anton Stucki reveals, onset hearing loss as well as other conditions of the ear canal, such as tinnitus, industrial hearing loss, and vertigo, are not part of our normal physiological aging process. The brain is naturally able to compensate for hearing loss, even in situations with loud background noise, yet as we age, we often lose this adaptive ability.
For more info and/or to order this book, click here.
About the Author
Anton Stucki is an audio expert, well known in Germany for his hearing recovery system. For over 10 years he has helped thousands of people restore their hearing and has trained medical practitioners and therapists to use his system.
