Accepting THE SILENCE

What is it about the silence that makes you so on edge? 

With technology demanding our everyday attention, sometimes it feels good to shut everything off and to just be with your thoughts. While technology has allowed us to overcome communication gaps and connected us in many ways, it has seemingly allowed us to abandon any comfort in silence and trust me when I say, it can be scary to be alone with your thoughts but it can also bring you a lot of clarity. 

Engaging in comfortable silence, alone or with others has many health benefits both physical and mental. Loud noises have been linked to causing an increase in blood pressure and stress, where meditation or sitting in silence has helped many calm their nerves and reduce their stress. 

While it may be hard to ditch our phones and our everyday distractions and get some time to just be with ourselves, there are some steps you can try and implement when it comes to building back that silence that is comfortable rather than awkward.

Put The Phone Down:

Okay, this may be an obvious one, but it’s easy to overlook! Oftentimes we spring to social media due to our FOMO and wanting to be up to date with everything but one day away from your phone is not going to kill you. Learn to make the conscious effort to enjoy your everyday life, the people around you and what you are doing, besides using your phone as a way to distract yourself. 

Practice Mindfulness:

Imagine this, you get to a coffee shop to meet your friend and you come to the realization that you forgot your phone in your car, what do you do? Most times you would go back to get your phone to avoid the feeling of being uncomfortable due to needing to have an activity to do. But maybe this one time, you can accept the silence and learn to click into your mind besides distracting yourself constantly with an object. Sit with yourself, even grab a napkin and a pen and write out all the things you want to achieve in a year. You would be shocked with how much you can learn about yourself while being in silence for 5 minutes. 


Forgiving Yourself:

This one is still hard for me, it’s okay to be mad at yourself, disappointed, angry, sad or just done with yourself but the number one thing you need to apply is forgiving yourself. It’s hard to fully move past things but with some inner work you can do it. 

When was the last time you sat in silence?