Sound of Silence

The sound of silence, despite being a great song written and sung originally by Simon and Garfunkel decades ago, is also a valuable tool available to us whenever we choose to unplug. Its not just about unplugging, although that is an important part of it, its also about learning to sit without music, chatter, TV, or anything else consciously playing around us. Its about being able to let our mind wander, exploring our thoughts and emotions, working through our struggles and triumphs, and to let our mind process everything that we deal with on a daily basis. How often do we give our minds the chance to do this? Is it daily, weekly, monthly, never? Can we turn the music off during our day and fully focus on the task in front of us without any outside distraction? Or are we unsettled by the “silence” around us? I cherish silence, even if silence is never really that. There never really is a time when we are devoid of some sort of noise around us. If we turn off the music and listen, we will find that there is a whole symphony around us almost all the time, if we are brave enough to pick up on those subtle vibrations, ticks, whistles, and everything else nature and life fills the void with.

My first real bout of silence I give myself every day is on my morning hike in the woods. While many people feel the need to where earbuds these days while walking or hiking, multi-tasking while they get their exercise and listen to the latest podcast or song, I prefer to let nature fill in the void, the sound of silence actually being nature itself. Birdsongs proliferate, chipmunks and squirrels providing the drumbeat as they rummage and traipse through the leaves. Wind often whistles, far off cars honk their horns and machinery fires to life. Its never really silent, but then, most times, my mind is so involved in working through and processing my daily life that I don’t always hear nature around me. Its in that silence, while my feet walk over the some rocks and sticks every day, that I work through problems, organize my day and what needs to get done, decide how to approach an issue and bring it to resolution, or sometimes simply work through what to write here the next morning. It is during these times without distraction that I can work through anger and frustration, process and appreciate more fully those beautiful moments in my life, organizing and storing things in my memory for later. Yet, sometimes, I just listen to the world around me, following every noise and seeing what made it, simply letting nature play its symphony for me.

Its not just during my morning hikes that I embrace the silence, but often times during work as well. As I’m standing painting whatever it is I’m working on that particular day, I focus more deeply at times without music, letting my body fall into a rhythm where the paint brush becomes an extension of my hand and the act of painting takes on a meditative quality. Its extremely calming and soothing, the hours sometimes slipping by exceptionally fast as I just work. I don’t see many people, even contractors these days, without earbuds in or some sort of distraction playing in the background. Don’t get me wrong, I love to have music playing as well, but there is a time and a place for everything. Without taking the time to embrace the silence around us, we can’t truly process our day or our lives. We need the downtime and the silence to give our brains a break from all the input we generally throw at it. How can truly think about anything if we are always listening to the radio, a podcast, or music? How can we come to terms with who we are if the news is always blaring or the TV chattering in the background? I don’t think we can. Silence can be settling, it can be calming, it can be healing…but we need to learn how to accept the silence and be present in it. If we can’t learn to sit with ourselves, letting our minds wander, what will happen when the music stops? Can we sit in a chair and just think without doing anything? I think we should all strive to embrace more silence. If you regularly fill your life with music and noise, turn it off for 15 minutes today and see if you can handle it. If you already embrace silence, see if you can embrace it more and let your mind wander even further, exploring even more. Its powerful if we can learn to embrace it fully. Give it a try today.