Dear Avalon family,
I call my Mom every night to ‘tuck her into bed’ as she lays down to sleep. Last week, she answered her phone. There was no hello, just her saying, “I am STILL wearing my hearing aids because I read your Take Heart on Tuesday email!” Bravo, Mom! By wearing her hearing instruments all day long, she was doing immense good for her mind, her body, and her heart.
The simple act of wearing your hearing aids every day, helps you:
- stimulate your brain
- lessen cognitive decline
- connect more easily with other people and your environment
- reduce the likeliness of depression
- help your sense of balance
- reduce your chances of falling
My Take Heart message for the last two weeks has stressed the importance of wearing your hearing aids, full-time, for more than 8 hours per day. Wearing hearing aids is good for your BEAR, – Brain, Ears, And Relationships!
Why? Because PROPERLY FITTED hearing instruments stimulate what’s left of your hearing (the hairlike nerves in your inner ear) and the auditory parts of your brain. Think of hearing aids as exercise machines for your brain and your ears, but they must be PROPERLY FITTED.
What constitutes PROPERLY FITTED hearing aids?
Basically, hearing aids must do three things:
- They have to feel comfortable in your ears
- They must sound comfortable to you
- They have to make speech clearer, not just louder
If your hearing aids fall short in any one of these three areas, you won’t wear them full-time. It may be time to have your hearing tested and allow us to adjust your hearing aids for both comfort and clarity. At Avalon, we help you hear the best you can for life, your life, now, and for years to come! You can count on that kind of commitment and ongoing service.
Are you a full-time or part-time wearer of hearing aids?
Due to the pandemic, many full-time wearers of hearing aids turned into part-time wearers. Anything you do part-time or inconsistently increases the chances that you will stop doing it altogether. For example, when I commit to walking every day, I walk almost every day. When I say I’ll walk, four times a week, I end up walking less. Anything worth doing is worth doing daily.
Confession time
When I used to come home from work and change my clothes, I would lay them on a chair instead of hanging them up. I’d tell myself that I would put them away in a few days when the stack got bigger. My justification was that I would handle it all at once and save time. Guess what? That strategy did not work. Now, I hang my clothes up immediately. My bedroom is neat, my clothes don’t get wrinkled, and I can find things. Most important of all, life works better
The story of my patent leather shoes
I remember my first pair of patent leather shoes. My Sunday best shoes! I only wore them to church and Sunday school, four hours per week. They were so shiny and pretty. But they hurt my feet, a lot. I was never able to ‘break them in’ like we often do with new shoes.
If you only wear your hearing aids to church, you’ll never ‘break them in’.
The brain won’t get used to all the extra, subtle sounds or the background noise. Listening through hearing aids may become distracting and even annoying. But, if you commit to wearing your hearing aids, full-time, those extra sounds become normal sounds. Your brain and you adapt. In fact, the average brain needs four to six weeks to get used to hearing and listening in a new way. Listening through hearing aids becomes more pleasant. But remember, the hearing aids must be PROPERLY FITTED to match your unique, hearing loss and your lifestyle.
Create the habit of putting your hearing aids on, first thing in the morning
Please don’t save your hearing aids for when you go out or around people. Your brain really can’t get used to hearing through hearing aids if you wear them part-time. Everything may sound too sharp and tinny. All the extra sounds of life, like the clanging of dishes, the running of water, or the humming of the furnace, may seem bothersome. You might even find yourself justifying that you don’t need to hear these extra sounds. Little by little, your hearing aids become an annoyance rather than a miraculous device that keeps you connected to your life. If you can relate to this experience, would you make an appointment so that we can help you? You deserve to hear clearly and comfortably.
Yours for CONNECTED Hearing & Living,
Betty Vosters-Kemp, BC-HIS
Owner, Avalon Hearing Aid Centers, Inc.
Board Certified Hearing Instrument Specialist
P.S. In the meantime, keep reminding yourself that wearing hearing aids is good for your BEAR!!! If you’ve been hesitant to take care of your hearing, call Avalon today for your free EDUCATIONAL Hearing Test and Consultation. Taking that one step is also good for your BEAR!