I moved here from the busy and noisy SF Bay Area about 24 years ago.

Originally from Germany, I fell in love with the peaceful and luscious Olympic Peninsula - a welcoming green sanctuary of belonging. Together with my partner we build our lives here as yoga teachers and artists. We invested time, energy, and money into our property, our community, our careers, and our lives in Port Townsend.

Now we have to escape the noise when the growlers start making their rounds!

No more gardening at such times, apologizing to yoga students for the disturbance, having to cancel meditation classes, and building a bed on the couch at night with two pillows - one over the right, and one over the left ear. Our home has been taken away from us.

In my work as yoga therapist I focus on PTSD and the nervous system’s response to triggers such as incessant exposure to this kind of noise.

Research in neuroscience has proven that it triggers an alarm response in the sympathetic nervous system, which is in turn being hijacked by our biochemistry into a “flight/fight” or even an immobilizing “freeze” response. This causes an increase of cortisol and adrenaline in the body, which takes days to normalize in the bloodstream. Long-term exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can wreak havoc on almost all of your body’s processes, increasing your risk of many health issues, from heart disease and obesity to anxiety and depression.

Stress-causing exposure also impacts the thyroid gland function, which is down-regulated during stressful conditions. T3 and T4 levels decrease with stress, causing the inhibition of the thyroid-stimulating hormone caused by glucocorticoids in the central nervous system.

NÖLE GIULINI
PORT TOWNSEND