The Sound of Silence

The space around us is silent by nature. And sound emerges through silent space.

When we go to bed at night and everyone in the house sleeps, the space is inherently silent. We rest as silence, in silence. But we are soon pulled out of our silent slumber when the day breaks, and the dog barks, and the kids scream. The peace of silence seems all but a dream.

We live in a chaotic time. Noise pollution is the norm, from phones ringing and pinging to gossip, news and comment section feuds. Silence offers us space to breathe, connect and remember who and what we are - human beings, not human doings. Silence creates space for simply being where we gift ourselves the opportunity to self-reflect and deeply relax, which is vital to maintaining a regulated nervous system to build the resilience to take on the challenges of everyday life: school runs, office meetings and family dinners!

Silent space is always available to us, but the sound of alerts demands our attention, and they are relentless to those with no boundaries.

Taking Radical Responsibility for our Peace

Nowadays, we have to take ourselves off and away to experience anything close to quietude, but we rarely do. The demands of daily life involve our complicity in a society and culture of busyness, a modern-day lifestyle that is being rewarded and applauded, but to what avail? Where has all this striving, competing and busy, really busy, just so busy, gotten us...? As a society, we are exhausted. Generally speaking, women are burnt out from trying to be too many things to too many people. The perfect wife, a loving mother, a supportive sister, a reliable friend, an available daughter, a dedicated employee...whilst performing all duties with grace and compassion, looking effortlessly "fine" all the time, and keeping it all together, nice and neat and tidy. This is not healthy, and it is not sustainable.

We are all being called to slow down, reconsider what's truly important, whilst collectively learning and exploring being present and authentic, setting clear boundaries and the value of true self-care. But there's something about sitting in silence that we generally avoid. But why? Is it because we don't value silence, or because a feeling arises that we would rather avoid...? Deeply contemplate this.

Awareness here is key - ask yourself: "Why don't I prioritise silent space?" "Where do I allow silent space to be filled with sounds: music, TV, notifications and demands for my time and attention?" "Why am I avoiding sitting in silence?" These are important questions if we don't take the time to honour ourselves with regular quality silent space.

The True Value of Quietude

Silence is one of our greatest teachers and can provide a phenomenal resourcefulness. One minute in the car to take a few deep breaths may be all the reset we need on a busy day; however, if you are new to meditation or sitting in silence it can be rather confronting.

When we sit in silence we are often met with an inner voice, located somewhere in between the ears and at the back of the eyes. This voice in the head appears to be judging, explaining and circumnavigating events of the past: "I should have done [X]"/"I can't believe I did [Y]". Or, concerning itself with future events: "I need to do [Z] otherwise [this] and [that] will happen to me". And it moves and jumps from past to future, where we feel we're being pushed and pulled on an anxiety seesaw, carrying with it associated feeling tones in the body, oftentimes guilt, shame, fear, grief and dread. And thoughts seem to hijack other thoughts, creating thought forms that we can observe if we create a little space between our mind, and the thoughts themselves.

If we create space between thoughts, enough to observe them, we will see that thoughts appear in space. They arise in silent space. Thought forms are sounds that gather in the silent space of the mind that we then believe to be true of ourselves.

If we practice meditation or sitting in silence on a regular basis, we begin to see that no matter our efforts, thoughts will continue to come and go. No matter how we try to stop or quieten the thoughts, they keep coming. Thoughts arise or appear in space, the space of our minds, which is also inherently silent (although rarely is!) They then dissolve back into the place from which they came.

So how about letting them be...

What about giving thoughts space to come and go? Allowing them to appear, disappear and possibly even reappear...? This is a practice and, like all practices, takes discipline. Just five to ten minutes a day can help to create silent space within the mind, the nervous system and the body.

Sound Through Silence

A Silence Within sound bath accents silence as much as it does sound. Our systems are as attuned to the different sonics as they are to the silent space between sounds. We are aware of sound because it punctuates silence. During our sound baths, the silent space, the pauses and the gaps between each beat, each sonic, are of equal value to the sounds themselves. They are what give the sound bath its immersive wave-like quality. This allows the sounds, and the space between the sounds, their lucidity, to permeate the nervous system and assist in a downregulation of the parasympathetic, making you feel safe enough to relax.

Silence In Spring

Spring brings new ideas to the fore, and silent space is a womb for the birthing of creation. The invitation is to explore what it is to allow space between gestation, birthings and doings this season. Can we allow enough space between our thoughts for creativity and curiosity to arise and bloom naturally? Is there space to soften and receive silence?

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