Iress : Silent Disco

On nights out the trip to the bar is often filled with the frustration of trying to shout your order over the volume of the music and hoping that what gets served is close to what you wanted. It was totally opposite in the silent disco, you would simply take off your headphones and talk normally to the bartender. For someone like me still, almost young enough that I can imagine going out to party if I want to but old enough to not want to shout to be heard by everyone I meet, this was a revelation! I had a choice of music and an option for no music, I could be fully in the party or in the room observing with headphones off but whilst great for me there was one person in the room who was totally left out, and that was the bartender who had no music to listen to and was excluded, on the sidelines until someone decided to speak with them.

Mental health is a complex subject, poorly understood by many, myself included, but my experience at the silent disco brought me a perspective on how isolation can have a significant impact on mental health.

Cities are notoriously lonely. I, like many people, commute to and move through a city with headphones on, playing a range of music or podcasts that either reflect, focus or change my mood at the time. I'm comfortable in this bubble but my headphones don't glow red for 'happy', blue for 'relaxed' or green for 'thinking', and as a result no one can guess my playlist. Similarly, I, probably like everyone else in the city, am completely unaware of anyone else's playlist and typically pay little attention to whether someone wears or does not wear headphones.

Financial services can be equally lonely. Even though I've been in sales for twenty years I sometimes find networking uncomfortable, breaking into an existing group or enjoying a conversation beyond the formalities doesn't always come naturally. I sometimes marvel at those with this skill innate as they breeze through networking with an impressive ease. I worked with a salesperson earlier in my career whose networking and rapport building skills second to none, so much so that it seemed that they'd never met a stranger, but now having known them for some time and I know that these skills mask their challenges, they have moments of doubt and even with their endless contacts they can sometimes feel isolated.