A Challenge of Silence

Honestly, I'm not sure what made me decide to write this...let alone put it up here on my blog. I only hope that someone reading this benefits from it. What I'm writing about has nothing to do with English or literature, or anything like them. It has to do with silence.

Silence, according to Webster's New World Dictionary is the absence of sound, but have you ever listened to a silent room? You should give it a try if you haven't, because the funny thing about silence is that it's not always silent. In my experience, it's never been completely silent. There's always been something...some noise...that disrupts it. Yet, that something is a part of the silence.

In all honesty, I don't think I could stand to be in a place where it is completely silent. Growing up with three younger siblings and sleeping in a house where you can hear street races kind of does that to you. If I went deaf I'd probably go crazy. Sound has played that big of a role in my life.

Going deaf and losing your sense of hearing is not what this post is about, however. No, it's about something else. It's about something that I want you to do.

I want you to do something. Something that tends to calm me during times of stress and worry, during times when I'm unable to stop thinking. I want you to go to a room, and I want you to shut off all electronic devices. Computers, phones, televisions, radios, iPods...turn them all off. If you must have your cell phone at least change its setting to either silent or vibrate.

Now, lay on the floor. The lights can remain on or off (I normally shut them off if it's during the day), but lay on the floor in the center of the room. If that's possible. Actually, it really doesn't mater where you lay, I just find laying on the floor to be less distracting for some reason.

Once you're laying down, where ever you're laying down at, place your arms beside you so your hands are flat on the surface beneath you. Make sure your legs are out stretched, not bent, and close your eyes. Calm your breathing. Focus on your breaths until you feel yourself relaxing.

Let yourself drift away. Become part of the room instead of being a disturbance in it. Don't open your eyes and keep breathing. Inhale...exhale..inhale...exhale.

Do you feel yourself relaxing? Good.      

Now stop focusing on your breaths. Allow your quieted mind to observe the silence around you. Keep your eyes closed though. You don't need your sight to see the beauty of silence.

Slowly I want you to pick apart the silence. Grab a hold of one sound, like the hum of a passing car, before locating another. Make a mental list of all the sounds you hear. Notice how each sound adds something to the silence, just like how a speck of spice adds its own unique flavor to a soup.

After fifteen or twenty minutes you have my permission to turn on music, but keep it low and soft. You don't want it breaking the silence, for silence is a fragile thing. Also, use a radio...not an iPod or MP3 player. The earbuds/headphones of iPods allow you to drown out the silence to easily.

Stay like that, quiet and observant for sometime. You may find yourself dozing off and that's quite alright. If you do, you're probably pretty relaxed.

By this point you're probably wondering why I'm challenging you to do this . Really, what is the purpose of listening to silence? It's to listen and learn. Listen to the world around you, to the little sounds that you take for granted everyday, and to hear your own inner thoughts. Learn from the silence.

You can call me crazy, but I believe we can learn much from silence. Sometimes, when I do this activity, I don't just lay their listening to nothing. I lay there and marvel at the awesomeness of the Creator. I think about life and how precious it is, I think about how much God loves us (Yes, I'm a Christian), I think about all the little things that He gave us and we take for granted (such as our senses), and I think about how powerful silence can be.

Once you finish this activity, should you choose to do it, I hope you come out feeling as peaceful as I do.

Let's face it, life's not perfect. Everything may not be right in your world. You may have something you're fighting with, but sometimes all it takes is a moment of silence to give you the second breath you need in order to deal with life.

Silence truly is powerful.