I’ve been thinking lately on how important silence is.
We need to embrace quietness every once in a while. I don’t mean locking ourselves in a noise-proofed room. I mean just taking time to not do anything for a few minutes. A few minutes of getting away from the hustle and the bustle and the honking traffic and the bombastic concerts and the blockbuster movies. A brief stretch of time containing nothing but the thoughts inside our own heads.
Why do I think that’s important? Well, as a creative type whose mind spins with new story ideas like a hamster running its wheel, being still for a couple minutes helps me recharge my mind. It revitalizes and refreshes me. Silence is rest. When I sleep at night, my body recharges its batteries. Silence helps me recharge my creative batteries, so to speak.
Silence can also be healthy simply for allowing us to exercise non-physical attributes, like patience and thoughtfulness. When we strip away all the noise of daily living, we’re left with our own thoughts. No outside influence or stimuli going into our brain. Just us. That can be a little scary, facing our own thoughts. But it’s good for us, too, to consider ourselves and rest our minds from the constant influx of media messages and the general racket of everyday busyness.
Or maybe I’m just biased. I’m an introvert, I like peace and quiet. Maybe more extroverted people are able to endure the busyness and noise better than I can. Never stopping to collect one’s thoughts sounds exhausting to me. I could sit in a chair and just think all day long.
Even so, if you’ve never tried it before, just take a couple minutes out of your day and do nothing. Turn down the TV or the computer, sit back, and enjoy quietness. See what it does for you. See for yourself if you agree that silence is important.
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Jake W. Powell 