(This article was written by Saeed Muhammad Lawan, may Allah reward him)
Psychological noise is a certain attitude that makes communication difficult between the speaker and the listener. For example, great anger
or sadness may cause someone to lose focus on the present moment. The
following story gives a good example of the effect of psychological noise.
Read the following story about Mrs. Amina and Mr. Sameer:
After preparing the dining table, Mrs. Amina forgot to bring the tea flask
and soup. She rushed to her room to park her books and she came out to
the parlor as quickly as she could.
“What nonsense is this!” Mr. Sameer said loudly. “You are rushing to go
to school and attend lectures but you can’t even sit down and cook and
prepare everything well for your husband,” he added.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Mrs. Amina asked angrily as she
continued talking, “I have a quiz I didn’t even read for at all.”
Mr. Sameer’s temper was high. He immediately flipped the breakfast table over, along with everything on it.
“Look at what you’ve done!” Amina gasped.
“Yes, I did!” Mr. Sameer said as he took his cap and briefcase to go out.
He left her standing alone, shedding tears.
“Ohhh I’ll be late for lectures,” she thought as she went out to class.
Some minutes later, Dr. Umar the course lecturer had already entered the class.
“Excuse me, Sir.” Mrs. Amina asked permission to enter.
Dr. Umar ignored her and continued explaining his current topic.
Amina moved back outside and leaned on the wall, recalling
what had happened between her and her husband.
“Amina you can come in,” Dr. Umar requested. “Amina,” he called again, but
no response. She was deeply thinking about the huge mess that Sameer
gave her for breakfast.
“Amina!” Dr. Umar called her for the third time loudly.
“Yes sir, I’m sorry,” she answered, horrified.
“What are you thinking about? “You can come in,” Dr. Umar requested.
Mrs. Amina went in, walking slowly directly to the last seat. She sat
beside her intimate friend Latifa, her two hands on her cheeks. The
class was quiet; only the masculine voice of Dr. Umar was rising as he
kept explaining about momentum.
“Amina! Amina! Amina!” Latifa whispered, but Amina was deeply thinking.
After some minutes Dr. Umar said, “Time up!” and walked out of the class.
Latifa, Amina’s best friend poked her friend’s head with her finger. Amina
immediately came back to the present.
“Present in class, but absent-minded,” said Latifa.
“When did Dr. Umar leave?” Amina asked.
“I don’t know, what happened to you? Strange mood! It seems you are
suffering from psychological noise,” Latifa diagnosed.
“I’ll explain everything to you later; let’s go out for break,” said
Amina, managing to smile for her friend.
They quietly went out.
The above story you showed a quarrel between Amina
and Sameer. This quarrel led her to psychological noise and a lack of
concentration. After she came to class, she couldn’t concentrate
on her lesson. She was present in class but absent-minded.
Effects of Psychological noise:
1- Lack of concentration
2- Affects you psychologically
3- Causes lack of speaking abilities, interacting, writing, and persuading.
4- Unreasonable murmuring to oneself; you will see some people who are suffering from
psychological noise murmuring to themselves alone.
Ways to prevent psychological noise:
1-Be patient , soft and always keep calm; this will help you a lot.
If both of the characters had the habit of being patient, there would be no
argument.
“And obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not dispute and [thus] lose courage and [then] your strength would depart; and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.” (Holy Quran, 8:46)
2- Always speak gently, as you read in the story he shouted at her and
she shouted too. Imagine if they are patient and soft. If they spoke in a
calm manner nothing bad would have happened.
The Prophet (pbuh) said, “O Aisha, Allah is gentle and He loves gentleness. He rewards for gentleness what is not granted for harshness and He does not reward anything else like it.” (Sahih Muslim)
3- Don’t rush and always have time management. Mrs Amina in the above
story rushed to cook, leading her to forget the soup and so on. Time
management is very important when we have multiple roles in life.
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Clemency is from Allah and haste is from Satan.” (Tirmidthi, hasan)
4- Share house chores together . If Mr. Sameer and Mrs. Amina
shared the housework, if he helps her to prepare the dining
table, their life would be more beautiful.
Al-Aswad reported: I asked Aisha, “What did the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, do when he was with his family?” Aisha said, “The Prophet would do chores for his family and he would go out when it was time for prayer.”
(Sahih Bukhari)