Embrace the Silence | Weekbook #15

Take a second and imagine you are walking through Times Square, Piccadilly Circus or Shibuya. You're surrounded by bright LED billboards, blinded by the vibrant colours. Noisy music is blasting out of shops. People are walking all around you talking on their phones, listening to music or scrolling social media as they go. Everywhere you turn, your senses are bombarded. It is no exaggeration to say that we live in an over stimulated world.

As of 2023, global screen time is averaging almost seven hours per day, increasing by almost an hour in just ten years. That's not just screen time for work either. Almost half of two-year-olds are interacting with smartphones, and the average person from generation z is looking at a screen for around nine hours a day *[1]*.

It is therefore no wonder our brains crave silence. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of American adults practicing meditation increased from 4.1% to 14.2% *[2]*. It is no coincidence that as external stimulation grows, so too does our use of practices that disconnect us from the world.

However, it doesn't require you to learn anything new to understand the power of disconnection. Have you ever wondered why your best ideas come to you in the shower or when you're trying to fall asleep at night? Take a moment and think about the similarities. Yes, the silence.

In both scenarios, your brain isn't subjected to external stimuli. You're embracing the moment of quiet and the results can be magical. When left to wonder, ideas and creativity flow. The same can happen when meditating or journaling.

It is for this reason that moments of silence should be embraced. They are moments to reflect, think, and generate ideas. Your brain, arguably the most powerful creation that evolution has ever produced, craves this.

So the next time you're bored, procrastinating, or searching for a solution to a frustrating problem, embrace the silence. Better still, embed moments of quiet into your daily routine. Try journalling before bed, allowing your thoughts to float to the surface before you sleep. Alternatively, go for a walk without headphones or shower in silence. I guarantee you'll be amazed at what you'll discover.

Book Notes

I am currently reading Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.

• Meaning is when everything there is comes together in an ecstatic dance of single purpose - the glorification of a reality so that no matter how good it has suddenly become, it can get better and better and better more and more deeply forever into the future.

• Now the idea is not the same as a fact. A fact is something that is dead, in and of itself. It has no consciousness, no will to power, no motivation, no action. There are billions of dead facts. The internet is a graveyard of dead facts. But an idea that grips a person is alive. It wants to express itself, to live in the world.

• Taking the easy way out or telling the truth - those are not merely two different choices. They are different pathways through life. They are utterly different ways of existing.

Try this Podcast

Ending Quote

“Silence isn't empty, it's full of answers” - Unknown.

Reference Material

[1] https://explodingtopics.com/blog/screen-time-stats#top-screen-time-stats

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2018/201811_Yoga_Meditation.htm

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