Be your own foley artist: mindful listening

Foley artists add sounds to TV and movies. You might have seen videos of them walking in place on gravel, in time with a character walking on screen. Or they break stalks of celery to simulate a bone breaking during a fight scene.

As an exercise, I turn your attention to the sounds I'm are making in the world, and the sounds around me from other sources. My footsteps on wood vs. tile vs. asphalt. My dog's harness jingling, her footsteps on asphalt or noticing she's silent on grass. The sound of my key being inserted in a lock and then turned. The sounds of the sink's running water, or closing a cabinet. Ambient sounds like a car in the distance, crickets or birds: sometimes all at the same time.

I try to noice, are these sounds louder or quieter than expected? Some times they sound amped up, super loud, other times I can't hear a thing. Are they "realistic" or surprising? How did I expect it to sound?

Then I'll notice I haven't been listening to sounds at all for a while, as if the world went silent. Without judgment, I didn't "fail", if I decide to continue the exercise I'll gently turn my attention back to the sounds.