Celebrate The Sound Of Silence

In our day, there are too many noises and distractions. Sure, we tune most of them out, but they are still there lurking in the shadows. I remember reading Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's account of how aware she was of the noises around her. In fact, I remember her saying something about working sometimes while using ear plugs to drown out the noises.

I am one of those sensitive people when it comes to noises. My ears pick them up as it does simple sounds around me. Sometimes it is a contest between my cat and I as to who picks up more sounds. It is sometimes difficult for me to function in a day where I need to be creative or analytical and having sounds flood through my ears.


There is a silence project that is being done and I remember reading about how the person doing this project struggles to find truly silent places. There may be sounds of airplanes above or even distant traffic and sounds of a city that carry for miles. He has found that areas of true silence are vanishing from the world we live in.  To read more about the silence project, click this link.

One day at the park, I was trying to record some nature sounds and I thought I had found a peaceful place. It was not until I got home and started listening to my recordings, that I found there was all this extra noise. There were airplanes flying overhead that I had not heard while in the park. There were sounds of traffic from a few miles away. Here I was immersed in all these extra sounds but was not tuned into each one.  To read more on this, click this link.

Our brain and senses take in so much information in a day. Often we are on overload with the advent of TV and the internet and our cell phones. So, our brain and senses get picky about what we actually take in on any given day. This means that we often miss the little things in life that are a joy to listen to, while fighting off an over abundance of sound and noise.

Sometimes, the best thing we can do for our body is to just find the quietest place we can and bask in the sound of silence. Sometimes we need that silence in order to refresh our brain and our senses. Even spending a few moments can be healing and refreshing by listening to simple sounds such as a bird chirping, or the rustling of water in a river or the wind touching the leave of a tree. May we all celebrate the sound of silence for our mind and body.

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