BITS ‘N’ PIECES

Narrated Mauwaiya (R.A)

I heard Allah’s Apostle (P.B.U.H.) saying, “If Allah wants to do good to a person, He makes him comprehend the religion. I am just a distributor, but the grant is from Allah. (And remember) that this nation (true Muslims) will keep on following Allah’s teachings strictly and they will not be harmed by anyone going on a different path till Allah’s order (Day of Judgment) is established.”

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 3, Number 71

DID YOU KNOW?

The bones in your head affect how you hear your own voice, making it sound deeper to you than it does to others.

Many people find that they don’t like the sound of their own voice when they hear it played back to them in a recording. This is a common experience and is often rooted in the way our body processes sound. When we speak, we hear our voice in two different ways: through sound waves traveling in the air and through vibrations in the bones of our skull. These vibrations, which occur when we speak, make our voice sound deeper and fuller to us than it actually is.

When we listen to our voice directly, our inner ear receives both the sound waves transmitted through the air as well as sound conducted through our skull bones as well. This bone conduction alters the quality of the sound, adding low-frequency vibrations, which makes our voice seem richer and deeper. However, when we hear our voice in a recording, we only hear the sound waves that travel through the air, which lack those internal bone-conducted vibrations. As a result, the voice on the recording often seems higher-pitched, thinner, or unfamiliar to us. This contrast between how we expect our voice to sound and how it actually sounds can be jarring and uncomfortable, leading to a dislike of our recorded voice.

Additionally, self-perception plays a role. We tend to identify ourselves with how we hear our voice internally, and when this expectation doesn’t match reality, it can create a sense of disconnection. The voice we project to the world and the one we believe we are using can seem out of sync, leading to discomfort or embarrassment.

Though disliking your voice might feel like a personal issue, it’s actually a common physiological phenomenon. Knowing this can help ease the discomfort, reminding you that others hear your voice more consistently than you do, and what may sound strange to you is completely normal to them.