Learning to listen to my surroundings and doing other creative activities alone

Wanted to write a blog about learning to listen to my surrounds which helped improved my listening skills and learning more about ambience sounds. Also doing other creative activities alone such as photography and painting which I haven't done since secondary school. So listening to my surroundings helped me identify where certain sounds were coming from. Small details that I would not hear if I was listening to music on my headphones. It also helped me improve how far each sounds would make from a certain distance which helped me fine tune attenuation distances for work.

I was at the Kyoto Gardens last weekend, listening to the waterfall, the birds and people around me. It was really calming and peaceful. It retuned my ears and helped me focus on specific sounds that I wanted to hear.

Using this time while I was there, I took some pictures to try and capture some moments which express on what I was seeing and feeling. I wanted to practice my photography skills as I wanted a different way to express myself other then using sounds. It felt nice to branch out and do stuff that I haven't done in a while. I would recommend Kyoto Gardens if you're ever in the area, it helps clear the mind of unwanted stuff.

Couple of days ago, I started painting at the ArtPlay venue in Shoreditch. I haven't painted since secondary school, just over 15 years ago. I've never been an artist and I wanted to try something new. Maybe a new career path? It felt nice to spend two hours just painting the first thing that came from my mind. Which was a beach. I wanted to paint something that has multiple colours as didn't want anything that was simple. I wanted a challenge. It was nice, like focusing my mind on something other then sound and it was really engaging. Definitely would do it again sometime. Doing these activities alone help me refocus on doing stuff for myself and it helped repurpose my perspective on things. Rewarded me too and I really enjoyed it. Maybe I'll doing something sound related next time.