Power of silence

We all know that our mother nature operates silently without much noise. We hardly notice a tree growing or river flowing towards a sea or our earth, sun and moon floating in their orbits. On the contrary, we humans are constantly besieged by our internal and external noise. On average a person gets over 70,000 automatic thoughts per day. This ceaseless internal dialogue in our minds and outer noise are the barriers to our integration to our self.  As Roman poet Horace wisely said, “that mind is at fault which never escapes from itself.” Out of the thousands of our usual activities, not a single one has anything to do with nourishing our self.  Our ability to slow down our assiduous mental chatterbox and block our external noise can lead to bliss, wisdom and self-actualization.

Solitude and silence have always been regarded highly by all major religions, mystics, thinkers, philosophers and even modern spiritual alchemists. Over the centuries, thinkers and mystics have gone as far as to claim that by inculcating state of mental stillness and silence we may be able to get access to unfathomable and unexplored energy within us. Many philosophers have gone into solitude to seek wisdom and tranquillity. Eminent French philosopher Montaigne recommended that “we should set aside for ourselves a room at the back of the shop” to go in solitude for spiritual withdrawal. These brief spells of self-searching can have a positive impact on our overall well being by becoming more aware of ourselves and learning to climb ourselves out of dark holes of bewilderment. Silence unveils our souls. Techniques to induce a state of silence in our ever active minds and lives can include meditation, prayer and spending time in the quietness of nature.

Meditation is one of the common self-employed methods to induce mental silence and relaxation. Various ways of meditation are useful not only in improving overall well being, happiness and contentment but have scientifically been shown beneficial in multiple mental and physical ailments including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, headache, hypertension and cancer. To induce mental and physical relaxation by meditation, people use various techniques including sitting quietly, taking deep breaths and relaxing, yoga, chanting or reciting. Scientific investigations have shown that relaxation by methods such as meditation can induce objective neurohormonal changes in the body.

The majority of religions advocate some form of prayer for its followers. Prayer is a meaningful way to induce internal silence by detachment and withdrawing from external noise. The ultimate goal of prayer in major religions is a connection with a higher power or god or universal consciousness. Prayer has been reported to have a positive impact on our health and wellbeing through various processes including relaxation, eliciting feelings of hope, contentment and compassion as well as through submission to God by which a person allows someone higher to take control of events or life.

We are all aware of the calming effects of nature on our minds. Just looking at nature can induce calmness, relaxation and self-reflection. Spending time regularly in the surrounding of nature can have an immediate relaxing effect on our constant internal dialogue. Studies have reported that just looking at mountains, landscapes or forests induce feelings of happiness by activation of parts of the brain responsible for a positive outlook and emotional stability. Various scientific studies have reported a positive impact of communing with nature on both mental and physical health by inducing a sense of calm, tranquility, gratitude and happiness via a reduction of the mental turbulence that is part of our daily lives in big cities.

By regularly hitting the pause button on our internal dialogue and over-wakefulness of mind, we can improve our health, contentment, inner knowing, intuition and spirituality. We have to brave the sea of silence where novel ideas or energy is in abundance. Otherwise, our contentment will remain trivial in character and transitory in effect. By practicing silence, we can sow the seeds of happiness and regularly water the tree of our souls. Silence helps us to venture into depths of our hidden self which can be life advancing. Silence helps to purge us of impatience, intolerance and stress.

​Silence may help us to discover that hidden spring of life within us that has been waiting to be discovered by our internal eye which is currently blinded by the veil of our mental and environmental bewilderment. In these periods of silence, our souls shall experience abundance and a homecoming.  Rumi, Sufi mystic and 13th-century poet, described as the most popular poet in America, said “You have no need to travel anywhere - journey within yourself.  Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendour of your own light.” This discovery can lead to the rebirth of happiness. Silence helps to disentangle us from the bonds which distance us from ourselves. If we learn to listen to silence, it will reveal the secrets of the heart and disclose us to ourselves.  As Rumi said, “silence is the language of God, all else is a poor translation.”

(This article was initially published in Kashmir Monitor, India.)