The Power of Silence

     
       Throughout the last week or so the universe has been pulling me in the direction of silence, so I thought I’d use this blog post to explore the rarity and importance of calm and silence in this modern world where we all go at a million miles an hour! 

So I live in London, which is wonderful for many reasons (culture, eating out) – with silence and calm not necessarily being at the top of the list. Don’t get me wrong, there are places you can go (Greenwich for example) which are a bit quieter and have some nice walks, but on the whole living and working in central London is not conducive to inner calm and silence. There’s a wider debate here around city life versus country life, but that’s for another blog post and another time.

The first thing that forced me into calm and silence was a trip into the beautiful Yorkshire moors. The other half and I booked a cottage to get away from London life and see how the country lot live for a few days, and it was a huge eye opener. We woke up on our first morning with no people or even other buildings in sight and it was such a rare treat. The only noise to be heard was the occasional bleating of sheep. We spent the whole of Saturday rambling and it was glorious – the weather held out for a whole 6 hours, and boy did we make the most of it! It really pulled me out of my London fug and reminded me how important it is to just get away from it all for a while. However, the trip was not without its challenges for this city girl – namely a short but very treacherous trip in pitch darkness to meet the take away deliveryman, who incidentally had no idea where we were staying or how to find us. 

The next thing that forced me to just switch off and turn to silence was a horrible burst eardrum on my return from the holiday. I’ll spare you the gory details but it wasn’t fun, and I couldn’t be around any noise at all for a whole day – so reading it was. I read some great books and really just reveled in the silence and surrendered to it. All in all I ended up being in quiet surroundings for about 6 days in a row for the first time in what feels like a million years. It was a bit unnerving at first but it really gave me some inner calm and peace, and I felt properly refreshed at the end. 

Sometimes our lives are lived at such a fast pace that we need to force ourselves (or be forced) to chill for a few and properly switch off! Give it a try – especially if you live in a big bustling city!  :)