The Art of Silence

“Just like sleep restores the body, silence restores the mind, the emotions and the soul.”

- Unknown 

The hum of passing cars, ambulances, and pedestrians. The television blaring the daily news in the living room while loud music is being played in another. The voices from three cubicles down. The drumming of a passing plane or train. Noise pollution can loosely be described as the presence of intrusive or unnecessary sounds that can detrimentally influence the mental and physical health of humans. Numerous studies are starting to link excessive noise to increased anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, cognitive impairment, and fatigue. To grasp our need for silence, we must recognize the reality of the effects noise has on us, and after reading the list mentioned above, who else wants to take a hard pass?  

I’ve never thought of silence as being restorative until I was forced to battle with the chaos that had become my life. Anyone else ever been there? I found myself in desperate need of stillness. In desperate need of silence. My body must have known what my mind hadn’t because research is starting to show that periods of silence can lower blood pressure, improve memory, and relieve tension in the body and brain. Furthermore, silence can allow a deepening of insight into oneself or one’s circumstance/environment. Silence allows for imagination and daydreaming to occur; consequently, creative new approaches to life’s problems may emerge.  

Incorporating silence into your daily routine is pretty straightforward. Simply put, silence is essentially abstaining from hearing external sounds or verbally producing sounds. A few ways you can start utilizing the healing that is silence:  

• Spend the first 10-20 minutes and last 10-20 minutes of your day in silence. Not starting your day checking your phone, mentally skimming your to-do list, replaying the day’s events, or listening to music/watching tv might be just what you need to catapult peace into your day. 

• Take ‘silence breaks’ throughout the day. Go on a walk (in silence) during this time or find a quiet place to sit where you won’t be disturbed.  

• Disconnect. Unplug from music, podcasts, and tv while partaking in everyday tasks such as driving, cleaning, working out, reading, or getting ready. 

To quote the poet Rumi, “the quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” What are we missing because of the mass influx of sensory input we daily experience? I hope that by incorporating silence into our daily routines, we start to experience peace more vividly, and because of that, more vividly experience life.   

Brandi Hudson