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Wednesday 12 November 2014

Silence

When I moved into my flat one thing I didn’t like was I could barely hear when it rained unless it was absolutely chucking it down.  Today I realised I haven’t been sitting in the right place or allow enough silence to truly let the rain be heard.

In modern society there is no such thing as silence.  We are constantly being bombarded by music, strange noises from our phones, having the TV on ‘in the background’ – and that is just inside the house.  The only time I am really quiet is when I’m reading, and honestly I that isn’t completely silence as my mind is being filled with someone else’s words and thoughts.  And that moment between putting down the book and deciding what to do next, that moment that is only filled with silence, is not something I look forward to.

I find silence disconcerting. I don’t know how to feel or what to do when it’s too quiet, so I fill up my days with as much noise as I can find.  It’s not exactly intentional, but it’s become something necessary to feel calm and safe.

Because silence isn’t safe. Silence forces us to listen to our own thoughts without any outside input; it forces us to truly take stock of how we’re feeling. And, unfortunately, because we are so busy filling our lives with noise, we don’t always notice how run down we are, and we don’t want to know. So we fill our lives with noise.

There isn’t really a point to this post, it’s simply an observation.  I thought about making it a point that I’ll try and have my silence in my life (because I will), but honestly I don’t know whether noise isn’t just as important.


Do you make intentional time for silence? Have you found it to be helpful, or does it not really make a difference?

3 comments:

Faye Savory said...

Sometimes I set aside some time for meditation and consider that my silent time, but in reality I listen to guided meditations so it actually isn't at all. I hadn't really thought about it, but i spend very little time in absolute silence. Maybe I will try have a quiet moment or two tomorrow and see how I get on.
Faye
freckles&all

Sunny said...

The only time there is silence i. Our house is when I'm on the computer and hubby is outside. And it's only silent then if I remember to turn the TV off. Hubby doesn't know how to turn the TV off during the day. LOL

Shaina said...

There's almost never silence in my apartment—we live in a renovated factory building, and, as we're in the basement, there's always noise from above, water swishing through pipes, etc.

As an introvert, I think silence is very valuable but almost impossible to find. To me, that makes the quiet moments sweeter, but I agree that being alone with your thoughts can be frightening.

Have you managed to make the time, like you wanted to?