The Power of Silence:
In a world filled with noise and constant chatter, have you ever considered the power of silence?
There is no getting around it: humans as a whole are not comfortable with silence. Seldom do we drive in silence. I listen to podcasts, and many people listen to music while moving around by auto or foot.
Many homes have a TV or radio on in the background all day, because the person living there feels ‘lonely’ and uses sound to fill the gap.
Even most church services are packed with speakers, music, and spoken prayers.
If we do find ourselves in a quiet place, often there are so many inner voices vying for our attention that there is no space left for silence anyway.
Often it can be noisiest in the middle of the night when all seems quiet. That’s when those inner voices can get really loud and chatty.
Silence has become a stranger in our lives, and for some people, this feels threatening.
They feel they have to say something in a conversation.
Or turn on a device.
Or hum a tune.
Anything to break the quiet. There is actually a term for the fear of silence —a diagnosis called Sedatephobia.
What is it that we are missing when we fill every moment with sound? Is there a transformative power of the quiet?
Rediscovering Silence
The first step in finding power in silence is to turn off the radio or TV. Not for just a minute but for several hours or a whole day.
Can you identify the feelings that arise? In your journal, or maybe just a piece of paper, write down what and where you experience this feeling.
Is there nervousness in your stomach? Perhaps your jaw is tighter than usual? Are you feeling anxious? Lonely? Bored? Are the voices in your head louder than usual? What are they saying? Are you able to turn them off?
Write these feelings down as they occur.
In our modern world, it is a challenge to find quiet. If your daily life includes children, or calls you forth into the workplace, to school or into any public arena you will not find it particularly peaceful.
You may have to be especially creative.
Where to Find Silence
Some places of refuge I have used are the bathroom, my car (without the radio on), and the outdoors, especially away from people.
There are also tiny oases in the community: the reading room at the library, a chapel at the hospital, or an isolated walking path, even though you will meet chattering birds if you are lucky.
The birds and squirrels don’t impact personal silence the way voices and the sounds like traffic, jackhammers, and leaf blowers do.
I was sitting quietly at my desk the other day when the grounds crew where I live arrived to annihilate the leaves.
I think they wanted to scare them away with noise!
In self-defense, I decided to clean the house. I turned on the vacuum cleaner, but I would have felt better, I think, had I stopped all struggle and rested in interior silence instead.
I had wanted to mitigate the loud sounds of the leaf blower. Instead, I doubled them!
The Gifts of Silence
I have found several gifts in silence, including the gift of healing. Studies have shown that spending time in silence reduces stress, improves concentration, and increases mindfulness.
There was a time I would want to do research about all the effects of noise and then write academic articles about my results. That, in itself, is a kind of ongoing noise that I no longer wish to live with.
I would rather accept that I feel better when both my environment and my soul abide in the stillness of each moment.
When I get up before the world begins to churn and watch the sun arrive without trumpet fanfare, I am able to tune into inner thoughts, emotions and intuition.
I can welcome each passing thought with hospitality, perhaps writing down any I want to follow up on, and then letting the others just flow by.
Silence as a Path to Self-discovery
Silence as a path to self-discovery allows me to tune into my inner thoughts, emotions and intuition.
When my inner self is cramped in a corner because of all the noise in my outer world, it is hardly in a position to give me feedback or wisdom about my next course of action.
On the other hand, I can spend a moment, or perhaps ten minutes, and do nothing except let life whisper through and over me.
Once I have learned to protect myself from the onslaught of noise over which I do have control like the computer, TV and podcasts, I turn to deal with the inner voices.
You know the ones—whose vocabulary tends to be limited to “oughta, shoulda, and coulda.”
I have learned my best response to these voices is “Hmmm. You may be right, but not in this minute of silence.”
It sometimes helps to write down what the inner voices are saying. Journals work well for this. But once you are finished, close the notebook and leave it.
You may never return to it, and that is okay.
You have acknowledged the voice and set it aside. Silence can now return unhampered, though it does take practice.
The Practice of Silence
If you are not in the habit of practicing silence, you will want to begin with teeny steps. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat a few times. And then listen.
Listen for inner wisdom. Clarity. A word of solace. A creative idea. Anything that can’t make itself heard over all the noise in your world.
Begin small. Set a timer for one minute and see how quiet your world can become. Even in silence, you may still hear the ticking of a clock, the sound of air in your nostrils, the shuffle of your feet against the rug, and the sound of your pen crossing the page you are writing on.
These are the healing whispers we easily miss because external noise is washing over us like a firehose.
I once heard it said that silence is the language of the Divine. What holy message might you be missing today, lost in the cacophony of daily life?
Like this reflection?
Get more by leaving your name and address and TheReflectivePen
will bring you thoughts to ponder each Sunday morning.
