2022-04-16 The Value of Silence

Most of us don’t like silence, because it forces us to confront ourselves. And sometimes what we find staring back is emptiness.

We’re also afraid of silence, because we equate silence with insignificance. We want to be heard and seen. We want to make ourselves relevant. We want to be somebody in the eyes of others.

The desire to make ourselves feel relevant can be very strong. But in our quest to be heard and noticed and thought well of by others we often drown out our inner voice.

We’re constantly in search of something we already have. We already have everything we truly need within us. The peace we seek is not out there somewhere. It’s in the here and now, in this moment, within us.

If you want to know yourself, turn off the T.V., the radio, the internet and the running dialogue in your head. Go to a quiet place and spend time alone. This is where you’ll meet yourself. This is where you’ll learn what’s truly important to you.

While sitting in silence we can hear and see things we otherwise wouldn’t, and our desires become few and simple. We find our inner voice of contentment and realize that we’re already everything we need to be. Silence helps bring us back to a place of rest and clarity within, away from the noise of the world.

Guard this space in your schedule. It’s more important than anything you do, because it’s from there that you’ll find the strength, purpose and self-composure to be a better person for yourself and for others.

Like sleeping, brushing your teeth, eating, going to work and exercise, we need time for silence in our day. We need time in our day to cultivate silence so we can bring it with us into our daily actions and live with a sense of peace, even in the midst of stressful circumstances.