“Will silence be the next scarce resource?”

The ancient Chinese philosopher and writer Lao Tzu (6th century BC) said: “Silence is a source of great strength!”

Today, it seems we might have forgotten this century old wisdom. Noise is everywhere! Noise is present anytime! From the moment we wake till the moment we settle into an unrestful sleep, noise is omipresent.

We switch on the radio or even TV during breakfast. We commute to work by car and turn the radio on. In the metro or train, we put on the head set of our inseparable toy, the smart phone. Open office spaces were created to improve communication, yet brought along noise challenges of their own. These make it hard for us to concentrate and to focus on one thing at a time. If we are allowing ourselves a short lunch break out of the office, we fight our way through an architecture of noise: Car drivers honking their horns, ambulance sirenes penetrating the scene, people passing by talking like robots into their mobile devices. We sit at our desks and are bombarded by a constant chain of notification noises telling us we’ve got mail, SMS, whatsapp, twitter or facebook alerts etc. Because we are all in a rush, we go in our conversations straight to the point. We speak fast. And if others do not seem to understand us, we repeat it, just speaking louder.

By the time we reach the end of our working day, our head is spinning and we long for just one single moment of peace and quiet. Yet, commuting back home we are exposed to the same avalanche of noise we already encountered in the morning. Picking up the kids from school, we are so saturated that the excited chatter of our kids are numbly categorised as just another assault on our nervous system.

STOP!

If we continue like this, silence could indeed become the next scarce resource in our modern western lives. Yet it does not have to be that way. It is in our own power to create small moments of rest, islands of peaceful silence for us. All it takes is the raw awareness of what we are putting ourselves through and the will to change it.

Thereafter it is not that complicated for smaller issues to make conscious choices: It is simple to turn off the notification noises in your I-Phone “settings” menu. When driving a car, it is not too challenging to leave the radio switched off and to become aware of the relative absence of noise. It is of course more complex to stem the tide of noise in our office or when mastering the inner city center.

The all important question is however “why” we even would want to aim for silence, or to be more correct, “stillness” as Pico Iyer so powerfully explained in his book “The Art of Stillness – Adventures in going nowhere”.

Stillness is for us a way to re-generate from mental and physical fatigue. Stillness is almost a pre-requisite for creativity. Only when the mind is at rest, when we give issues time to “sink in”, will we be able to “think clearly” and to come up with unexpected, imaginative ideas.

Stillness is also one of the most powerful communication tools. No, this is not a typo. Stillness is a way of communicating. Ever had a heated argument with your partner or a close friend and said something you wish you had not said? Well, next time insert a moment of stillness, let emotions settle down and use the time to reflect on your next words. Maybe the best is not to say anything at all?

How often did we not wish the sales person on the other side of the table would give us just a little bit of space to think things through and to reflect on what his question actually means for us? Again, silence provides that space. Just 30 seconds of stillness can make all the difference to a good sales call.

As the Irish proverb goes: “God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we ought to listen twice as much as we speak." A good advice I wish I had followed myself on many occasions during my own life.

If we are serious about re-introducing stillness into our lives, mindfulness meditation can be a powerful tool to achieve this. Like all habits we would like to develop, the meditation habit takes time and effort to include into our hectic daily calendars. Yet once it does become a habit, we cannot be without it. I personally like to compare it to having a shower in the morning or brushing my teeth. Cleansing our mind is as much a morning ritual as cleansing our body. It puts us into the right frame to face the day and the freshness we need to manage that storm of noise out there. And in the evening it helps us to clear our mind from the clutter accumulated throughout the day and to slip into a peaceful sleep. Silent meditation retreats are an excellent way to get re-acquainted with the power of silence.

A simple exercise is to think of your next day ahead. Actively look for possible islands of stillness: Having a calm and relaxed breakfast with your family without background noise? Taking a book with you on the train? Having your lunch in the park next to your office? Spending 5 minutes on the roof terrace of your office building in between meetings? Discussing the happenings at school with your kids over a good cup of tea? Going for a walk in the forest with your partner to really listen to what she/he has to say to you?

Take some moments of calm reflection in stillness and I am sure great ideas will come up.

To end with another of Lao Tzu’s famous quotes: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. So begin by creating small islands of stillness and then grow your kingdom of peacefulness one step at a time.

Yours quietly

Sascha Klenke

[email protected] / www.jump.business

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