It was some years ago, when I realized a profound thing.
From the first waking moment until I fell asleep I was enveloped inside an auditory cocoon, that drowned out my thoughts.
It was at this moment that I realized that it had been quite some time when I last had some time for myself, to really reflect on my life.
Before that moment I was either listening to music or to podcasts.
Never went out of the house without earbuds.
In the bus, the train, while walking the dog or through the city. I was not listening to the birds or hearing the chatter of the people around me, no I was listening to some dudes in the US talking about technology or my newest favorite song of the day, that I would listen to a hundred times until I could not hear it anymore.
While music had the effect of either uplifting my mood or enforcing melancholy, podcasts(some of them) had the added benefit of expanding my knowledge in a passive and entertaining way.
Because of this passivity, my thoughts never mattered on the topic that I was listening to, because I was not actively engaging in a discussion with anybody. I was the endpoint on that chain of information sharing.
Once I realized that it felt like waking up. Becoming aware of my situation, was the first step towards being a creator instead of just a consumer.