Do you find yourself filling up all your time with noise from our phones, televisions and music?
And what about being surrounded by cars, people, things to do, places to go.
How often do we take time to just be in silence? Its takes effort, but that silence is where we get to be at our best. It is so easy to get into a habit of distracting ourselves from our being.
My clients come into a session commenting that they don’t know themselves. They look at me in some form of desperation of wanting help with this. When I suggest they need some down time from social media, or their busy lives, and just be in silence, they often look at me in horror.
When exploring their fear, I regularly hear such comments as it’s uncomfortable, it makes them nervous, they do not know how to do it, or it might make them feel out of control or that things will not get done.
All of these comments are a reaction to the idea of being with the ‘self’ and only the self. Instead of being afraid, I ask them to embrace it and see what happens and that they might just be surprised.
Taking time daily to just be in silence is invaluable. It is in silence that we truly learn who we are, it is in silence as a couple that we truly see each other, it is in silence that we learn about others by hearing them, it is in silence that we see what is inside ourselves—deep inside our being.
Commit to taking time for ourselves daily to be in silence.
My favorite way is through meditation. This does not mean you have to sit crossed legged for hours on end. It could just mean doing one (or more) of these things for a few minutes a day:
- Sit or lie down, close your eyes and focus on inhalation and exhalation of your breath.
- Wherever you are, just take 10 deep breaths.
- Paying attention to what you see without naming it, without judging it.
- Sit and eat without any background noise and focus on your food.
- Go somewhere like a church, or in nature, or a quiet space in your home and just experience the stillness, the silence.
- Do gardening in silence.
- Just be in your home without any background noises.
- Power down all your technology for a morning, or even an hour. Turn it all off. This is an amazing experience. Try it and see.
It is through being in silence great things can arise. Both Beethoven and Mozart would close themselves off from the world in silence for days at a time. It was in this silence that their great work was created.
There are many great men and women throughout history who needed alone time, silence, including Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa and Ghandi, just to name a few.
In his book “The Power of Myth,” Joseph Campbell shares his wisdom on silence: “This is an absolute necessity for anybody today. You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers this morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you might find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.”
I challenge you this week to find your silent place, your place of being with yourself, your place to grow and go inward. It is wonderful.
Contact Dr. Zavala at DrZavala@mac.com or DrZavala.com.
