Right ear ringing: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What right ear ringing is

Ringing in the right ear is a sound heard on that side that does not come from the world around you: ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling or a low hum. A ring that lasts a few seconds and fades is common and harmless. When the sound lasts or keeps returning, it is tinnitus.

When tinnitus sits in one ear only, it should be checked. The cause is often local and simple: wax in the right ear canal, an infection, fluid behind the eardrum after a cold, or a problem with the jaw joint just in front of the ear. Loud noise can affect one ear more than the other, depending on where the noise came from. Ménière's disease often begins in one ear, with attacks of vertigo, a full feeling and changing hearing. Some medicines can bring on tinnitus. Rarely, a benign growth on the hearing nerve causes ringing and slowly reduced hearing on one side, which is why a GP may arrange a hearing test and sometimes a scan.

A sudden drop in hearing in one ear is urgent: see a doctor within 24 hours. A ringing that pulses with your heartbeat also needs a check. Long-term tinnitus is managed by treating any cause, with hearing aids where hearing is reduced, sound therapy, relaxation, and talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy. Stress and tiredness usually make the sound louder.

The emotional meaning of right ear ringing

Spiritually, the ears are linked to listening and to balance, keeping you upright, alert and on your path. A ringing ear is read as inner noise, a sign that you are not quite tuned in to yourself. In the map of the left and right sides of the body, the right side carries the active, masculine principle, in men and women alike: logic, speech, decisions, work, the direction you choose, and the men in your life. So a ringing right ear tends to point to the noise of your outer life.

Pressure to perform

Tinnitus is often linked to a very high pressure to perform. On the right side, that pressure usually comes from work, money or ambition: targets, deadlines, a role you must hold. The body is under tension and the mind runs so fast that it feels as if everything might blow. The ringing can appear after a shock that pushed the stress level up at once, such as a redundancy, a burglary or a separation that changed your finances and your daily structure.

The need to be recognised

Another theme is the need to be recognised and respected in your identity and your rights. At the same time, you may fear losing your job or your standing, and prefer not to look that fear in the face. The right ear can carry that double bind: wanting to be acknowledged, and being afraid of what would happen if you stood up for it.

A change you did not choose

Ringing in the ears is also linked to resisting a change you did not pick and cannot control: a restructuring, a new manager, a move, the end of a business arrangement. You may cling to your ideas and stay in a situation that no longer satisfies you, while knowing, somewhere, that if nothing shifts there will be a split. Holding on takes a great deal of energy, and the noise may be the sound of that effort.

Words you refuse to hear

Spiritually, buzzing in the ears is linked to refusing words you find unpleasant: advice, criticism, a truth about a decision. You may resist because you are afraid to know, or afraid that knowing would force you to choose. On the right, these are often words about your work, your plans or your way of acting. You may be doing things your own way and closing your ears to the rest. Ideas that go round and round, negative thoughts and worries can then drown out your own good sense.

The father and the men in your life

Because the right side holds the relationship with the masculine, the ringing may touch a father, a boss, a partner or a brother: someone whose advice you keep shutting out, or whose silence you cannot bear. For a man, it may touch rivalry and the pressure to measure up. For a woman, it may touch her working life and the roles she wants to step out of.

In folklore

Popular belief, not medicine and not the spiritual interpretation above, says that a ringing ear means someone is talking about you. In a widespread version, a ringing right ear means you are being praised or spoken of kindly, though many places reverse it, and some say you can stop the ringing by guessing who is speaking. These are sayings and they predict nothing. The guides to left or right ear ringing and burning ears cover them in more detail.

The other side

Left ear ringing turns inward: feelings you would rather not hear, a silence in a close relationship, and the inner voice you keep talking over. The right ear asks which outer change or which advice you are resisting, the left which feeling you are covering. The tinnitus page brings both together.

A gentler way to hold it

• Have the ear checked. One-sided ringing deserves a doctor's look before anything else.
• Lower the pressure. Build short pauses into the working day. A calmer nervous system often makes the sound less intrusive.
• Name the change you resist. Write it down, and next to it what you fear would happen if you accepted it.
• Listen to the advice once more. Choose one piece of feedback you dismissed and hear it again with some detachment.
• Loosen one fixed idea. Ask whether you still believe it, or are simply used to defending it.
• Recognise yourself. Note at the end of each day one thing you did well, without waiting for someone else to say it.