Silence in the Age of Noise (2017)
(originally featured October 28, 2017, reposted here for new readers)
The author once spent fifty days walking solo across Antarctica with no radio and I’m fascinated by his observations on silence.
To me it is far deeper than being in nature, it is about silence within silence. We all have the ability to be silent, be still at any time, to be totally present to each moment. Within such silence there is real power.
So, why don’t we seek silence as the gift that it is ? Why do we choose to be always busy, to seek the pleasure of the dopamine fix of checking our phones rather than discover the happiness, the lasting seratonin contenment, of being at one with ourselves and nature.
If you live somewhere in the Northern hemisphere with seasons, right now it is Autumn. Go for a walk somewhere in the trees and then find somewhere to sit. Put away your phone and anything else and just sit.
I’m nowhere near perfect, I find it as difficult as Pascal did in the 1600s, when he said :
“all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone”
Looking back at the #OpenLeadership model being developed in the UNTHINKABLE series of articles along with other collaborations, here we are again, looking at our fears, our self-knowledge.
What makes Pascal’s phrase so powerful ? It talks directly to our fears. As he also said :
“the present hurts”
Only when we can be fully present can we lead effectively.
As a mentor of mine said once, “it is simple, but it is not always easy”.
Ed Percival also said : BE MORE YOU. That starts with self-knowledge and presence.
What do you focus on to be present ? Where do you find your silence and silent moments ?