Shhh … Silence

Shhh … some hotels write on the board that the guests hang on the door to inform the housekeeping not to disturb.

We have an intense life rhythm, our to do list gets longer, we think about the past, about the future, we always wish something new and more. We live in the noise, present in different ways outside and inside us, we are constantly overloaded of words, sounds and visual inputs.

Technology allows us to be always connected, and of course provides us with very useful tools for our job, tools that ease to communicate, to collect information and to keep the relations with our contacts. And when the outside world gives us a break, the thoughts, in our mind, circle with no pause in an unending movement, not less tiring even if more silent, that takes control on our actions.

Have never happened to us to feel uncomfortable in the total silence of our home, looking for music or television to fill in the space that we perceive as emptiness we want to send away? “Your hearth is trying to say something to you but you could not hear it yet because your mind has been full of noise” writes the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh in the book “Silence, The Power of Quiet in a World full of Noise”.

To grow and become, we need space and quiet and the silence, the quiet from the noise of the mind, is a fundamental condition to listen to our deep and true self. “The silence is mainly something that comes from the hearth, not from conditions outside us […]. There are moments when we think we are in silence because all around us there is no noise, but if we cannot quiet our mind, within the head, talking goes on, constantly”.

If THINKING gets a total control, we are not anymore able to FEEL.

We need to reach the silence, looking for ‘exterior’ silent moments that help us to create the conditions for a more precious and important ‘interior’ silence, that ignores distractions and trains our attention. Not thinking is an art, and like every art requires practice and perseverance and patience. With some easy tips we can welcome the silence in our daily life:

• After waking up, at least half an hour, better one hour, no mobile phone;
• During the night, keep the mobile phone in flight mode and use the landline for eventual emergency calls;
• Enjoy a landscape or a happy moment with the family without taking pictures of it, and posting online;
• Especially for those who do not practice meditation, get the habit of 10 minutes of silence every day, better in the morning before our day starts.

These rituals improve the quality of our time, increasing concentration, too often fragmented by communication modalities that keep us connected always and everywhere.

Learn how to grow lightness and space in our hearth to listen to ourselves and understand others. Learn how to find the quiet to get free from our thoughts and allow that our feeling can nurture our actions too.

And so “[…] the silence seemed different. It was true silence because everyone stopped thinking”.

 

 

SUGGESTED BOOKS:

“Silence, The Power of Quiet in a World full of Noise” by Thich Nhat Hanh (which all quotes in the text are taken from).

“The gift of silence” by Kankya Tanner

 

Photo credits: Stefano Butturini