Silence is an expensive experience now that we live in such a hyper-connected world.
Give people 5 minutes of idle time, and they'll be scrolling through their Instagram timeline. Give somebody 2 hours of free time and they'll be using it to catch up on a TV series they've been following. Give me 5 minutes of silence, and I'll start playing something from my Spotify to dismiss the eerie hush.
Silence has become such a terrifying burden for humankind of our time. The loss of productivity, I suppose. But really, what is it about silence that we're so afraid of?
Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.
One of my favorite quotes from a book that I read last year, How to do nothing, perfectly captures our biggest fear about silence. It's not the absence of productivity that we're so afraid of. But because silence brings us the awareness of our surroundings, and it somehow overwhelmed us.
But I think we need to get used to that awareness. For it means that we can learn to accept ourselves, our life, the way it is. No expectations, judgment, or even worse, blame.
"The happiest, most fulfilled moments of my life have been when I was completely aware of being alive, with all the hope, pain, and sorrow that that entails for any mortal being." - How to do nothing
I don't remember where I read it, but a book mentioned that we should balance our time for 3 different kinds of C's. Consume, Create, and Communicate. But I suppose we need to add another C for Cease. The true balancer of the madness of this world. I can't agree more when a Norway artist that I've been listening to lately, AURORA, mentioned that "It's an extreme sport to be human". It does feel like it, indeed.