Silence is truly a beautiful phenomenon with the power to transform you; it touches you to the very core of your being. This is the part of you that is connected to reality, existence itself. Silence is rejuvenation; it allows you to be yourself, to relax into yourself.
The reality for most of us, though, is that we never truly experience utter silence.
Why is it? The reason is that we have a mind that is conditioned to always be active. To experience silence you need to have an extremely quite and sensitive mind.
Try this little experiment, sit for two hours and do nothing. Just observe your mind – this will show you the level of your being. What do you notice? Is your mind constantly seeking something to do to stay occupied? Do this passively, don’t run away, remain a witness to your thought process.
You will see that most of us try to keep our minds occupied. We try because if we become empty, if we allow silence to penetrate us, it will mean the death of our mind, of our ego.
Why is this scary?
For many of us we associate our identity and sense of self to our thoughts, our ego. Having a mind that is empty means its death.
Don’t be afraid because your true nature is beyond your thoughts. Silence will get you in tune with who you are. You just need to have the courage to look in and constantly explore, to go deeper and deeper into your being.
Being in a park and enjoying nature in a silent communion is such a beautiful thing; you feel you are intensely alive. You are one with the moment, with existence. You experience being in a timeless space, and this feeling is blissful, joyous. No where to go, no ambition, no anxiety, the here and now is enough.
To existence time doesn’t exist, it is one continuous moment. Think of times when you felt truly happy, in love, totally present, and you will see that time was not.
How we experience time is truly a psychological phenomenon, how you perceive it depends on your thought process. Developing your minds watchfulness you will see that fewer thoughts equal feeling more timeless, in the now. More thoughts equals feeling more hurried, more anxiety.
All you need to do is learn to watch, just by watching you automatically create space to watch, by and by you will begin to see and slip into the gap between your thoughts. Once you get a feel for what I am trying to describe, you will know how to get back into that space. The more you learn to watch in a passive manner, with no urge to control or suppress, you will see that thoughts come down on their own accord. Allowing silence to descend upon you.
By not trying to constantly control your thoughts you will notice that you become more alert, more aware, because you are now conserving your minds energy. A mind that is able to rise above your identification with your memory. You learn to use your memory, but your memories no longer control you.
You don’t react, you respond to life. Reacting means you answer from memory, from the past, this is acting in an unconscious manner. Responding means you act with awareness, with what’s needed in the moment, taking inspired actions not hindered by past or future. You will see how great energy was wasted in control and suppression.
A different quality of consciousness will begin to arise within you. You will have a mind that is capable of seeing something simply. To see simply is to see something as it is, without your mind distorting what you are observing.
So I would suggest to everyone to have a daily ritual of meditation. Meditation is the art of watching your mind. As a general guideline meditate one minute for each year of your age. If you are 30, mediate 30 minutes daily. The best is once in the morning and then again later in the evening.
How Silence Changes You
Since this blog is all about change, let me quickly point out how becoming more mindful and experiencing silence will do this.
It is a fact that life is constantly new, its dynamic, nothing is ever repeated. Therefore as silence becomes integrated into your way of life, you will be changing automatically, because you are getting in tune with life, your going with the flow of it.
By becoming more watchful you will be able to witness the changes taking place, and have the corresponding energy to respond to life in way that serves you best. Less struggling and more cooperation with life, now isn’t that what we all want?
Thank you for taking the time to read my article, I hope it adds some value to you and that it inspires you to discover the divine silence within you. Please keep in mind to not accept or deny anything I have said, this is your life so go find out for yourself. We are all different so each journey is bound to different. We may all find the same truths but express them differently, because if you find your individuality the expression has to be different. What you seek is already there, it has always been there, you just need to wake up to rediscover it.
Photo by whatmegsaid
sitting and just being
something I love to do
but am constantly pulled back from
animals everywhere LOL
I love the thoughts that come
just sitting
I love the feel of me in the world
just ‘be’ing
I don’t get to spend enough time there
but I go often :)
as I head out on 3 weeks of adventure
I will definitly take time everyday
even just sitting at the side of the road
letting life just be
thanks for the reminder
and Ivan it’s going to be an interesting travel experience
being so much more open then I was the last time
thank you for sharing you way in the world
it has pulled my own out
Peace friend
thank you my friend :) and have a great trip :) I am sure you will have a blast…don’t forget to tell me all about it when you get back home :)
Smaller, shorter meditations are really helpful as well and sometimes the best place to start. I think if you can sit in silence for five or ten minutes and start to appreciate the benefits, you might want to try it for longer periods of time. Meditation really is a practice or exercise to build on.
Quieting a busy mind is really refreshing!
most definitely :) anytime you can do is great…just try to be mindful all the time :)…be well :)
One of my favourite things to do is lie in the park, ideally in the sun, but even in grey weather, just lie on the grass and stare at the shy. I find for the first half hour or so my mind is racing, the to do list is running though my head, thoughts of what to do for dinner, who to call later etcetc. As that all passes I get to that amazing timeless place. It isn’t really conscious meditation but I feel completely detatched, peaceful, and like the world is standing still.
I could lie there for 20 minutes or 2 hours and not notice. I only get a chance to do this every month or so but it leaves me feeling serene for days.
Many thanks,
Kate.
Thanks for Sharing Kate :) you know what I am talking about :)
Ahhh. Silence sounds so wonderful right now.
As a child my favorite place to just sit and be silent was in the mountains. I would sit beside the creek and just be. It was wonderful. I haven’t done that in years – and as a mother silence is so often rare. I believe I will make a point to drive to that same spot very soon.
I really liked your comments on reacting vs. responding. We have pretty much programmed ourselves to react a certain way in certain situations. It’s usually those reactions we regret vs. the thought out responses we choose based on the outcome we really desire.
Enjoyable article!