We live in a time when there is nearly always someone or something shouting at us. We are immersed in noise from the time we get out of bed to when we try to go to sleep. People, advertising, websites, podcasts, social networks, music all compete for our attention. It is true. We cannot hear ourselves think. Which does not even mention all the sounds of thinking and feeling inside our own heads.
We become accustomed to being overwhelmed by the cacophony of our world. We try to ignore it and call it background noise. We lose the ability to listen, to pay conscious attention. The background noise makes it impossible for us to hear a single person. We do not think we can take any more, though we always do.
It is almost as if we were addicted to noise. We become lost at sea on a raft in an ocean of chatter.
We need to remember how to listen. Listening is a combination of paying attention and refusing to pay attention. We practice listening to what we want to hear and not listening to what we do not want to hear.
We begin by listening to silence. The first step is rediscovering silence in our world. We create silence around us by choosing where and when we want to pay attention.
It can be helpful to press reset and begin with no sound at all. It is like going “cold turkey” and letting go of everything, at least for a few minutes. We develop our ability to listen to silence by practicing regularly for a few minutes each day.
We recognize our thirst for silence, which grows in us.
What would you like to hear today?
How will you practice listening to silence this week?
[Image by Eldkvast]
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