10 Benefits of Embracing Silence

Have you ever heard the expression "You have two ears and only one mouth so you should listen twice as much as you speak"? What about "Silence is Gold"? It doesn't matter if you have never heard these expressions, you will still be able to take advantage of this under-utilized ability.

What does that mean? To me, it basically says "Shut up already!" We know that you can't have a conversation with both (or all) of the people talking at the same time. So somehow we have to take turns. There are some social conventions that help with this turn taking, but it doesn't always work as well as we might hope.

The results reveal reflection to be a powerful mechanism behind learning, confirming the words of American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey: “We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.” … In fact, these beneficial effects seem to be lasting.

In the August issue of Ode magazine, Tijn Touber wrote, "Being silent means more than just holding your tongue. It means listening for the softest, most subtle sound of all - the sound of the soul." Last April, I was forced to keep vocally silent for a week after minor surgery on my vocal chords.

At the end of this post I'm hoping that I will have convinced you to view a video of a song from the Gilbert and Sullivan, Comic Opera, 'The Gondoliers'. Not generally my everyday listening, but please persevere. Recently I listened to Tony Quinlan from Narrate talk about how the patterns we have established in...

"Let your beauty manifest itself without talking or calculation. It says for you: I am. And comes in meaning thousand fold, comes at long last over everyone." From the moment we rise in the morning, we are engulfed in external noise - the alarm clock buzzing, music blaring, coffee pot beeping.

We are not used to quiet. Your cell phone rings and chirps with calls, emails, texts, and social media updates. Your office is a constant whir of people tapping on their keyboard, conversations, and the hum of the ever so pretty fluorescent lights. Your home has the fridge running, the washing machine churning, the dishing...

"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world found." - Hans Margolius - It's no secret that we are bombarded everyday with countless messages. In America alone, advertising is a $412 billion/year industry that is constantly telling us what to watch, where to go, and what to purchase.

For many of us, true silence only comes when we close our eyes and turn in for the night. Even when we're "listening," our minds churn an inner dialogue: We're deciding what we'll say next, contemplating the way the speaker's mouth is moving, thinking about what's for lunch.

If you have ever thought about taking a vow of silence and wondered what you might need to consider, then you've landed on the right heli-pad. So let's jump right in, shall we? First things first...Why would anyone want to stop talking?The answer is simple: to awaken awareness.Most of us fall through our days in a kind of trance-like state.

Taking a break 2 or 3 times a day is a great way to untie the knots of stress in your body and also relax your mind.