"Silence is not an absence but a presence."
Anne D. LeClaire
Would you consider spending a day, hal-a-day or even an hour in silence? No verbal or written communication (No talking, no listening to devices, no watching anything, no reading, no writing)? Is your eye suddenly twitching nervously? Or are you picturing yourself as Elizabeth Gilbert in an ashram, making up your own version of Eat, Pray, Love?
The good news is that you don't have to travel to India and sit for hours in meditation. How long can you resist picking up your phone, tablet or a book? Try for half a day or an hour to start, if you find a whole day a bit daunting. Go for a walk without earphones. Cook without a device entertaining you. Tend to your plants. Clean or clear some of your home.
Silence will allow your mind to wander a little further, get ideas and solve issues. That chattering mind will also learn to quiet down eventually. Instead of losing out, you will be gaining more of you. You might just love exploring a slower pace and stillness. Time just for you, to reconnect with yourself or short breaks from noise every day. At the end of the day, grab your journal, describe the
experience and write down all your insights.
More than ever, we need silence to restore our sanity. There is so much mediocrity in the news and comments that we are bombarded with! Silence makes room for our own, more interesting thoughts. We switch off from 'reacting' mode to 'creating' mode: same letters, different life! Who and
what is worthy of your time and attention? Who and what isn't? Spending time in silence will give you plenty of time and thinking space to answer these questions and change the focus of your attention to what is important to you?
You could go for a walk, exercise, paint, collage, knit or saw, do a bit of gardening, potter about, care for
your body, cook, or just relax, daydream, sit with a cup of tea.
Can you give yourself an hour of silence every day? What would you do? What would you have achieved by the end of the year? It can literally change your life.
