Why I became a birdlistener

My inner voice can be noisy. Nature sounds help.

When my brain is chattering non-stop, one of my best tools is bird listening -- not birdwatching, bird listening.

I first noticed the chorus in the spring of 2020. The noise of planes, cars, and trucks became scarce. The inside of our house was filled with sounds from four different Zoom schools. The inside of my head was loud with worries.

And the neighborhood exploded with birdsong.

Looking for a way to supplement pandemic kindergarten, I downloaded the Merlin app (free!), and my son and I started to listen to birds. Many mornings, he would take his iPad outside on the deck, press a button, and watch as the screen filled with the names of the birds who (like him) got up with the sun.

It’s a habit that, for me, has endured. When I take the dog out for our early morning walk, I don’t put in headphones. The birds are my playlist.

Birds, Beauty & Attention

Dr. Ethan Kross, helped me understand one reason why my bird listening habit has felt so helpful.

It’s something called “Attention Restoration Theory.” Here’s an explanation from an article I wrote on the topic.

The sights and sounds of nature are not just enjoyable, they can also serve as attention “battery chargers.” That’s the idea behind Attention Restoration Theory, says Ethan Kross, a neuroscientist and author of “Chatter: The Voice in Our Heads, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.”

Put simply, kids and adults can focus more effectively after spending time outside. Nature is a cognitive tool that is “hidden in plain sight,” says Kross. “Nature restores attention.”

So how does it work? “When you go for a walk in a green space, you’re surrounded by stimulating sights like trees and bushes and flowers. They capture your attention, but they do so in a very soft and gentle way,” says Kross. This is called “effortless attention”: Nature stimulates the brain without taxing it, restoring our capacity to focus. “When you leave the walk, those attentional resources are more refreshed for thinking carefully about the problem that you’re grappling with.”

Other Ways to Help Kids (& Ourselves) Tame Our Mental Chatter

I learned so much insight from my interview with Dr. Kross that I wrote up two articles based on his work. This one, for Boston Globe Magazine, is specifically about the negative self-talk that plagues so many of our kids.

An excerpt:

Kross says our internal voice is a better predictor of happiness than what we’re actually doing. “Chatter can consume our attention,” Kross tells me, “leaving very little space to focus on other things.” … For adolescents, who are wired for inward focus and social comparison, chatter has mental health implications.

If kids and teens find themselves troubled by their inner voice, Kross wants them to know “that’s totally normal” and “there are tools you can use to manage how you engage with that voice.” According to Kross’s research, any strategy that allows you to “zoom out” and broaden your perspective can help. “[Chatter] zooms us in on the problem,” Kross says. “We engage in a tunnel vision way of thinking.”

One of his favorite tools is something he calls “distanced self-talk.” Try speaking to yourself in the second or third person, including using your name, which will fire up your instincts to be more supportive. Usually, we reserve “you” for describing other people, Kross explains. When we use it on ourselves, we turn on the “mental machinery for thinking about others.” This helps us view a situation more objectively.

So, for example, if I snap at my son after school, I might say to myself, “Deborah, take a deep breath. He’s overtired and so are you. Why don’t you feed him a snack and take a breather?”

You can read the rest here. (But first, maybe, go outside and listen to some birds).

Best,

Deborah Farmer Kris