By Irene Conlan -
Turn off the TV and take out your ipod earbuds. Turn off your cell phone so we won’t be interrupted and get your hands off your computer. I need your complete attention and it will only take a moment or two. I promise. If you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, rushed and ragged, pay attention.
The keyword here is silence. SILENCE?
Are you kidding me?
No.
Silence is to the soul/mind what food is to the body. We have to have it for healthy growth.
When were you last silent? I mean REALLY silent? Have you ever been able to turn the mind chatter off? Have you ever stopped the thoughts, even for a moment? Most of us have not. And with the advent of electronics – cell phones, ipods, and computers . we can take our noise with us wherever we go. How do you feel when it’s quiet? Do you go looking for something to supply some noise? Do you sometimes turn on the TV even though you don’t intend to watch it, just so it fills up the empty space of no sound? Do you pop on your ipod to keep the quiet away? Do you get nervous and edgy when it’s quiet?
What’s the big deal about silence?
It is in the silence that great thoughts, great inventions, great actions are formed. Interrupting the process with noise is like digging up a seed to see if it has started growing. Dig it up a few times and it dies.Push the creativity down with noise and it, too dies.
Silence is important to our health and well being. Deepak Chopra says healing comes in the space between thoughts. If that is true, do we have enough spaces between our thoughts for healing to take place significantly?
Try this. Take a moment. If you have a timer handy set it for three minutes. Close your eyes. Take a few long deep breaths and exhale slowly. Inside your mind say, “Rest. Relax. Silence.” Pay attention to where your thoughts go. Try to simply let them go and find the place of silence. When the time is up notice: Were there any spaces between your thoughts or did they scramble for first place each thought shouting, “Me first?” Did they go parading through your mind one after another or running through helter skelter trying to be heard before the noise starts again? Did the voice keep saying, “Is time up yet?” Did you have any time at all without thought? When you finished did you feel more relaxed and in control?
We all want to be in control – of pretty much everything – and the hardest thing to control is our own mind, our own thoughts. It is possible to get control if you give it some time and effort. Start of with three minutes a day getting quiet, relaxed and pushing thoughts out of your mind – just for three minutes. Your mind will want to talk and will make little remarks and side comments but stay with it until you find the rich, glorious silence. Three minutes. You can do that, can’t you? Then lengthen the time gradually until you find an amount of time right for you.
Three minutes of blissful, rich silence. This won’t happen overnight, but with consistency it will happen and you will begin to notice nice little changes taking place. There will come a time when you look forward to this session because it will become an oasis in your desert of noise. You mind will begin to enjoy peace and freedom from its constant chattering and you will begin to notice a feeling of calmness, clarity and well being that you have not experienced before.
O.K. turn all the stuff back on if you need to get back to some good old mind numbing noise. Thanks for the time.
