The Power of Silence

Are you running away from listening to yourself?

The more I meditate, the more I realise how important and healing those moments of silence are in my life. I am often surrounded by lots of people (I love company) but I have also used company as an escape from looking at things that were happening inside me that I didn’t want to look at or deal with. On reflection, when I have felt my lowest, that is also the time I have made myself the busiest. Keeping my external world full in order for me to escape my internal world. However, you can’t run from your emotions forever, they end up coming up in all sorts of unexpected ways if you ignore them, like physical pains or unexplained emotional outbursts (that not even you can understand).

What meditation has done for me is give me a little silence each day to figure out what is happening inside me before launching into the rest of my day. A time to become conscious and present to where I am emotionally, so I don’t ignore it and push it down pretending everything is ok when it isn’t. It’s also a time to realise when things are great and to celebrate that too. Introducing this into my life doesn’t mean I am surrounded by less people, it means that when I am in company I am more authentic and not using that time as escapism.

You can also introduce conscious moments of silence into your life without having to sit in meditation. I often go for a walk or even when I am doing housework, consciously using this silence to look inward, to check in with myself. You really can heal a lot by listening to yourself.

Become your own listening ear, your own emotional support by giving yourself a period of time to look in and listen. It might feel strange at first and things that you are trying to avoid might appear but over time the huge benefits are apparent. Being honest and aware of what is happening internally will transform your external world.