It was one of my favorite exercises and one of the most effective exercises. Did you manage to do it?

Did you move your attention from each sound separately to all the sounds together at the same time?

Did you realize that you are in the process of hearing the sounds?

Did you manage to feel this vibration at least from some sounds? My voice or a passing car or truck? Great!

Look, it’s a pretty simple exercise. All we did was hearing the sounds, we were in the process of hearing the sounds, and we realized what we were doing. But in doing so, we were training our attention. We were training our attention, moving it from each sound and then putting them together, several different sounds.

It’s one of the most effective attention exercises. But at the end of this exercise, we tried to feel the sounds, like vibrations. Why? It’s aimed at developing our sensitivity. If you have never done this before (we are not talking about feeling bass vibrations in the car with loud music), then learning to feel vibrations from any ordinary sounds will improve your sensitivity by 15%. 

 Example: Why do we need sensitivity? To feel happiness. The simplest answer is that sensitivity allows us to feel happiness, which is a subtle sense of stillness and peace. To capture this peace, we need to develop our sensitivity. This peace is always there, so the happiness is always there, but you need to be sensitive enough to feel it.

If you didn’t succeed with feeling sounds this time, it’s okay. We’ll try with other senses. There are different ways to feel peace, happiness, and stillness. Sensitivity helps us notice these feelings.

Sensitivity also improves our intuition. While we can’t develop intuition directly, improved sensitivity allows us to sense it better.

Also, sensitivity makes our world more vivid. We can feel more intensely, notice more details, and experience the world in full color. A developed sensitivity makes life more vibrant and enjoyable.

Another way we can use our sensitivity is to feel someone else’s thoughts. For example, when I have my own set of thoughts, and suddenly a foreign thought appears, I can use my sensitivity to recognize it. For me, foreign thoughts have a different smell. This is just my peculiarity, but try to find how you can distinguish foreign thoughts from your own in the following exercises.

This exercise was aimed at developing both attention and, of course, at developing sensitivity. It’s quite simple, and I used to do it regularly in very noisy places. The noisier the place and the more sounds there are, the better. I practiced it in train stations, airports, and city centers.

For example, if you have some time while waiting at the airport for a flight, you can start hearing all the sounds around you. There are so many different sounds: voices, carts, music, people, airplanes. Begin by focusing on one sound, then another, and another. Hear each sound separately, and then try to put all the sounds together into one. At some point, you might even experience a moment of absolute silence.

I love doing this in noisy places. I do it for my own pleasure; it’s a special thrill. You don’t have to do it, but try it for just a minute. You don’t need to do it for hours, just a moment here and there. Suddenly, you might find that you feel good.

We feel good when we use our attention. Every time we use our attention, it brings a sense of peace and quiet. To feel good all the time, we need to develop our attention and use it regularly. Remember, these exercises are just training. After completing the course, you don’t have to do these exercises regularly. It’s enough to simply use your attention in daily life.

For example, imagine our legs were injured, and we couldn’t walk for a long time. Our muscles weakened and atrophied. Once our legs recovered, we worked hard to strengthen those muscles and relearned how to walk. After mastering walking again, we no longer needed to keep training our muscles just to continue walking, right?

The same principle applies to our attention. We need to train our attention like a muscle and then use it regularly. It’s a choice you can make.

I’ve made this choice, and thousands of others have too, which brought them to happiness. I’m sure that anyone can do it. However, not everyone wants to. Some people seem to prefer suffering, but to overcome suffering, you need to use your attention.  

It’s important in this exercise not to fixate on identifying each sound you hear. Try to avoid overthinking it. While it’s impossible not to notice some sounds, our goal is simply to recognize them as sounds. By doing so, no unpleasant sound can disrupt us, offering us freedom—not an escape, but a choice to be at peace.

Yes, we might find ourselves in uncomfortable places, perhaps with unpleasant sounds. However, even in such situations where we have no choice but to stay, we have the power to make ourselves feel good. This can be achieved by simply perceiving every sound as nothing more than just a sound.

Now, for the next exercise, get ready for something truly extraordinary. I’m sure you’ve never experienced anything like that before. It’s worth learning, not just for the sake of doing it, but as part of your training. Most of our exercises serve as training sessions to prepare us for everyday life. We can continue to live our usual lives but with a different quality, from a different state of mind. This transformation is achievable for everyone—it’s within reach to achieve lasting happiness and always feel good. See you in the next exercise. Goodbye.