Power of Silence
When you feel driven to invent advice, solutions and the need to maintain your rightness, remember that silence can be the most sacred response.
Silence relies on your presence to convey connection. It allows one to experience a sense of solitude while they are with you.
Make a date with silence on a regular basis.
While you are together, recall your purpose; touch your wisdom and experience your feelings. The clamor of the world may assault you from many directions, but if you remember silence, you will not be overcome. In this way, silence is your victory. When you were a child, silence may have victimized you. But now is the time to make it your friend, again.
Plan your time with silence like a deliberate lover because then, you will walk with yourself and everyone will feel your peace.
Kiss Your Life... 365 Reasons to Love Who You Are
By: Ann Mody Lewis, Ph.D.
Reason: 222 Page: 240
Commentary:
If you think of silence as weakness, you miss the source of your dreams, the place of your healing, strength for your survival and foundation of your peace. Silence is the place where you dust off the residue of stress and decide who you are. Without silence we become restless. Silence, after all, is not the absence of noise…it is the presence of peace.
Isn’t it ironic that when we appear powerless in silence, we may be more powerful? Simon and Garfunkel sang of silence:
"The Sound Of Silence"
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted
in my brain still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash
of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never
Share no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said
“The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"
How deprived we are when we’re not comfortable in our own silence! In the age of technology, silence is threatened by messages with no sound but profoundly impacting our peace. We are constantly available to their intrusive powers, and if we’re not disciplined enough to block the intrusion, our silence overcomes preoccupation. Without silence we suffer: We can’t sleep or handle stress patiently. Depression (even if we don’t speak) keeps our inner life chaotic. Addictions make us restless with insatiable cravings. Our bodies carry the conflicts we never resolved. Silence is more than enjoying a spiritual retreat, it’s achieving personal harmony.
So, as Winnie the Pooh suggests: “Let’s have a think”….about silence!
Topics for this month’s discussion include: What makes Silence Golden? When is silence toxic? How should you manage silence in relationships? How is silence strengthening? Is silence an important ingredient to mental health?
Let’s talk,
Ann
