Last update: April 07, 2020
Perhaps the idea that being silent can become a luxury has never occurred to us. Something that only a few people can enjoy, those who manage to escape from the routine that prevents us from having time for ourselves, that subdues us and that makes us fear loneliness and total silence.
The contexts in which we move are extremely noisy, and we have adapted to the point of being convinced that being alone and in silence is bad, for many people it is even a source of anxiety. Consequently, it is important to ask ourselves a few questions in order to recognize the implications of this fear or limitation.
We don't realize it, but we constantly avoid being silent. We look for noise even when we have the opportunity to move away from it. We should ask ourselves what is the reason why we are so afraid of silence. Do we feel alone if there is no noise?
When we are home alone, do we turn on the radio because we can't stand the absence of noise? Do we tend to go to noisy places because the loneliness of our home torments us? The possibility of doing yoga or practicing meditation does not even pass through the antechamber of the brain, what a stress to be calm and in absolute silence!
Our mind needs to be silent
Certainly reaching this silence we are talking about is not an easy task, and introducing some of it into our routine can be, indeed, a very difficult challenge. Many of our desires, aspirations or concerns lie right where the noise is. An external noise and an internal noise, in an imposing and incessant current of thoughts.
Numerous studies have been carried out in this regard. In particular, there are many in which a comparison is made between people who live in large cities and those who live in rural contexts. The differences leave us speechless. The people who live or work in very noisy places, who sleep hearing the noises or the incessant murmur of the city, they are more likely to contract certain health problems.
Problems of the circulatory system, stress, anxiety ... If we look for the main causes of these disorders, we will most likely often find the lack of breaks. Our autopilot, after years and years in which we have always acted in the same way, is ready to jump from one stimulus to another.
Silence is annoying, being silent makes us nervous. These are just beliefs aimed at justifying something we don't want to see in ourselves. What are we afraid of?
Yet our mind needs to be silent. Indeed, only thanks to the absence of noise our neurons have an enhancement of growth. The mind and body also relax, getting rid of worries, an accumulation of problems and tensions originating from external noise. When there is noise, we cannot listen to ourselves; and if we do not listen to each other, we can hardly count on a clear and clear mind.
Noise and agitation take us away from ourselves
Buddhism also says it: “noise and agitation take us away from ourselves”. Who among us devotes time to self-knowledge? Who gives himself a few minutes of meditation every day to calm the mind, relax and deal with the thoughts that we try to ignore as harmful and insidious, and that precisely for this reason do not stop recurring and causing us discomfort? It is certainly complicated when there are so many urgent tasks to take care of, when time for us can always be postponed to the future ...
Being silent is much more than practicing meditation or clearing your mind - a totally wrong belief in this practice. It means to stop living on autopilot and enjoy the present moment more. It is not necessary to do great things. It is enough just to savor a dish, appreciate its flavors, enjoy the chirping of birds when we walk in the midst of nature.
All this means living. The noise that surrounds us, in fact, prevents us from living, it only makes us exist. For what? To do what we have to do, without having fun, without taking care of ourselves and pampering ourselves, without recognizing the importance we have. Ending for move for reasons that are often not ours, but those of others.
"Some people find the silence unbearable because they have too much noise inside them"
-Robert Fripp-
We do not flee from being silent. We turn off the TV and open a book. We do physical activity in a park without wearing headphones. In everyday life we ​​are inundated with constant noise. Why continue to be so when we can set aside time for ourselves? Are we afraid of connecting with ourselves and with the world around us? What are we running away from?
