By Celeste Smucker
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. — Ram Dass
Does noise from your daily life distract you, slow you down, interrupt your work?
Noise can be anything from chatter, news broadcasts and streams of never-ending videos, to traffic, sirens, or wind blowing through the trees.
Even when the environment is quiet, your mind can be noisy and just as (or even more) distracting.
Inner noise could be anxiety about your weight or something going on at work. Or maybe it's aggravation, worry and concern about the future.
Inviting silence into your life helps reduce the noise and reveal the voice of your inner wisdom, which is always there for you if only you can hear it.
How do you go about that? Let's take a look.
What is Silence Really?
SILENCE is not just the absence of noise, it’s the presence of awareness.
— Psycho Sencei
To understand silence first consider noise, its opposite.
Noise can be external: leaf blowers, laughter on a screen in the next room, chatter outside your door or in your open-space office, the fan in your computer, or your HVAC system.
it can also be inside your head.
Replaying embarrassing incidents from yesterday (or 20 years ago) or worrying about issues like finances, relationships, traffic or conflicts at work are all examples of noise in your mind.
Or maybe you assume too many responsibilities and must constantly juggle more commitments than you can comfortably handle
How's your sleep? Do you carry your inner noise into the night causing you to toss, turn and lose out on a restful night of sleep?
Regardless of whether it comes from outside or inside of your head, research suggests noise contributes to decreased productivity, compromised mental health and fewer feelings of well-being.
When excess noise causes imbalances like these in your life (no matter the cause), silence is the antidote.
What if you can't control the source of the noise?
In that case, learn to shift your awareness of it.
The noisiest voice in your head may be the one telling you how much better off your life would be if only your neighbor wouldn't rev up his leaf blower at 7 am on Sunday morning.
Instead, why not start by asking your neighbor to wait until at least 10 am. And if that doesn't work, take a few deep breaths and decide to be okay with the noise.
Chances are it won't last that long so why ruin your whole day stressing about it?
The Many Benefits of Silence
In silence, you meet the parts of yourself noise hides. —Psycho Sencei
Silence opens a path to your inner wisdom. A host of powerful benefits follow allowing you to remain centered and alert in the midst of whatever challenges life brings.
Moving into silence helps you:
- Stay centered in stressful situations by calming your nervous system.
- Reduce common stress responses like fight, flight, freeze or fawn. In a fawn response you choose to keep the peace by being a people pleaser at the expense of your own happiness.
- Notice, acknowledge and release unresolved thoughts and emotions. Some of these may have been running in the background of your life for years, often without your conscious awareness. You'll feel lighter and happier without them.
- Increase your focus and mental clarity so you can make decisions that align with who you really are rather than with who others expect you to be. This brings you into closer alignment with your authentic self.
- Deal effectively with overwhelm. You'll start to witness life events without getting triggered and without judging yourself and others.
- Come into and stay longer in the present moment so you can more often act with clear intention and awareness.
- Become a better listener and enjoy improved relationships with friends, family members and colleagues.
- Enjoy easier access to your intuition and its guidance and achieve the confidence to act on the insights you receive.
- Open to self-transformation due to expanded self-awareness.
- Deepen your awareness of the profound stillness always awaiting you under the noise.
How to Access Silence
There are many ways to bring more silence into your life.
External noise is often out of your control, though you can try noise cancelling headphones, closing doors, or choosing a quieter place to work.
There are, however, a variety of ways to quiet your inner noise.
The most effective and well known is meditation. In a typical meditation you close your eyes and focus your attention inward towards the silence.
If your mind wanders (it will, that's what minds do) bring it back to silence by focusing on your breath or on a mantra like Om Namah Shivaya or Ham sa. You can even use a simple word like "one," as recommended by Herbert Benson, MD in his famous book The Relaxation Response, that helped introduce meditation to Western audiences.
Another great option is Synchronicity's meditation soundtracks and in-home meditation programs that use High-Tech Meditation® to entrain your brainwaves into those of long time meditators.
Take a walk in the woods and pay attention to what you see and hear. Blend into the woods, become a forest creature. If you take a friend agree to be silent for at least part of your walk.
Try morning pages.
This concept from Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way helps clear your inner noise. Sit down in a quiet place first thing in the morning and put whatever is running through your mind onto paper or into your favorite note taking app.
Write whatever is running through your head. If your mind feels blank write "blah, blah, blah," until words start to come.
Putting your thoughts on paper helps empty your mind of noise. Over time it can also open the way to the profound insights that hide in the stillness beneath the noise.
Cameron recommends writing three pages every morning, but if that is too much, start with one and add others when it feels right.
If your noisy mind keeps you awake at night, try doing this exercise before going to bed as well. Clearing the noise may help you sleep.
Speak more slowly with longer pauses. Pauses give you time to breathe and speak with greater care making you a more powerful and persuasive speaker.
Your listeners are better able to understand you and will be more likely to remember your message.
If this is a conversation, others may respond more thoughtfully if you take time to pause. Your interaction becomes more meaningful because there is genuine communication rather than two people speaking at each other without listening to each other.
Close your eyes and focus on your breath. A breath focus brings you into the present moment, silencing (if just for a moment) your inner dialog.
Take a walk in nature and really notice the beauty of the trees, flowers, lakes, rivers, streams and other natural wonders.
Notice them like you are seeing them for the first time. You will begin to realize just how often you take them for granted.
Also pay attention to natural phenomena you can't see like a cool breeze on a hot day or the nourishing feel of shade after walking in the blazing hot sun.
And then there are the seasonal blooms, the intoxicating reflection of trees surrounding a pond you walk past every day but don't really see, or amazing clouds against a bright blue sky or stars and the moon on a clear night.
For an immersive experience in silence, try a silent retreat like the following.
Deepen Your Experience of the Healing Power of Silence: The Synchronicity Stillpointe Silent Retreat
Wouldn't it be great to take a break from the demands of daily life and reconnect with the stillness inside of you?
Join us for Synchronicity's upcoming Stillpointe Silent Retreat at Sanctuary Retreat Center in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and experience the healing power of silence at a deep level.
You will enjoy:
- Daily High-Tech Meditation® sessions in our meditation hall designed by a Meditation Master to enhance and empower your meditation experience.
- Gentle, relaxing yoga and movement practices.
- Explorations of The Holistic Lifestyle® and its importance for supporting and maintaining your meditation practice.
- Contemplative time in the silence of nature.
- Deep rest and reflection.
Sign up now and immerse yourself in the healing power of silence while you deepen your meditation practice and cultivate greater self-awareness.