19 February 2021
Do you ever want to give your eyes, ears, and mind a break? Not the kind of break they may get while sleeping, but the kind of break where you, the observing entity, can fully experience a gap in the noise-making distractions of life? Many people begin their day with noise, spend the day with noise, and end the day with noise. Wake up, open your eyes, grab your phone, check your email and texts, flip on the TV, and the day is filled with content and activity, until bedtime. If you create an environment of constant content (noise), how could you ever know the wonders that lie in stillness, quiet, and solitude? The mind thinks silence is pointless. Of course it does, the mind loves content and it’s a glutton for mental clatter, problems to solve, and images to see. The mind loves to see what people are up to on social media. The mind loves to compare itself to others. The mind loves to be pacified with noise and so-called entertainment. But have you ever tried starving the mind of what it craves?
Don’t fear solitude, quiet, and retreat. Embrace those much-needed entities as food for the soul. Indulge in quiet. Bathe your soul in alone time – even if just for five minutes. You can make yourself sit quietly, with no phone, no distractions, no noise. As you become aware of the mind’s resistance to sitting still, eventually it gives up and relaxes. It can become conditioned to be quiet, and you may actually enjoy the peace that flows from the gap in obsessive activity and compulsive thinking. Take full advantage of the peaceful, quiet, serene moments of solitude. Noise is what your mind thinks it needs, but silence is sustenance for the soul.