To listen means “to concentrate on hearing something “. To “hear” something doesn’t take too much effort today when you look at the technology we live with everyday. We are bombarded by noise. Traffic noise, aircraft noise, phone noise and all the other electronic noises that accumulate to create more personal noise than we have ever had in history. This amount of noise builds up stress without us being conscious of it. If fact this noise stress is linked to premature deaths around the world. So what do we do?

We need to get back to silence where observation is easier for us. To be silent yourself and have your environment silent is one position a lot of us don’t find ourselves in often, if at all.  The thought of not having sounds around may seem foreign as we are so conditioned to noise so the first time you try this you may relate to the saying ” silence is deafening”. So how do we do this? How do we make the time for silence? It is easy.

On the weekend, a day, or anytime you are able, take an hour off from what ever you would normally be doing. You are now to take a vow of silence. If you have children you can still do this, although, having very young children make it a little more difficult. The first time you do this, being away from the kids may intensify your experience.

Turn off everything that generates noise in the home including the phone/s. You can stand , walk, sit, go outside or do whatever you wish but be silent. The mental chatter you have will still be there (external noise or not) but try to let these thoughts pass you by. Try to listen to the sounds around you without thinking where they are coming from. In your home there maybe no noise so enjoy nothingness. No thoughts about what has to be done or conversations that have occured, good or bad, just be happy where you are. Listen, breath and enjoy.

Silence is beautiful, take a picture for yourself.