Four thoughts on the wonders of silence

The rarest good of our time, the most precious and the weirdest. Our first thought in any situation is to speak. We think, complain, discuss, and criticize. Many times we do not leave each other with enough time, in a dialogue built by both parties, to fully expose their idea.

1. THE OBLIGATION TO SPEAK

If you watch carefully you will see how often, in a social gathering, people run right over each other to talk. Sometimes they do not wait for the other person to finish their sentence, and they take an incomplete idea, perhaps anecdotal, to keep on talking to them. Of course this creates discomfort in anyone trying to say something, even when the interruption was not intentional.

It also happens to be that we are very disturbed by moments of silence that occur on several occasions. We feel like the tense restlessness before these silences are contagious, and have a compulsion to interrupt them, even with banal comments. We must learn to tolerate and value different types of silences.

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2. WORDS COVER UP FEARS

On the inside, we protect ourselves wisely from all painful or distressing feelings that are a natural part of the passing of a life. The stories of other people also leave their mark on us, because we are beings with empathy. This is how we usually perceive, and also have identified ourselves, with the sadness that other people, friends, relatives, or acquaintances have occasionally experienced.

They are feelings that we do not forget, that do not disappear, even if we do not think about them. But those fears shared by everyone are there, cowering to express themselves while faced by a vacuum of thought. Fears come together, all kinds, to find a soothing solution. And we avoid them, as if there were no other option than to silence them.

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3. LOVE IS SOMETIMES SILENCE

When faced with the pain, exposed, stark, immense, that we unfortunately have to face sometimes, the words on the first try, do not work. But the silence that it contains is unexpectedly valuable, it embraces, supports the other person in their emotional breakdown.

It speaks with gestures and silence that it will not run away, that it will not be a distraction to them, that it will not minimize it. That it respect them and keeps them company. That its mind is silent in order to accompany them, that it will remain in the embrace and the gaze, providing the strength that suffering requires. Nothing else is needed from love.

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4. TRUST IN THE CALMNESS OF SILENCE

The best way to achieve this possibility of finding calm in silence, is to perform a task within ourselves to create serenity. How do we do it? We know that external stimuli continually influences us, for example everything that happens around us, the words we hear, the news, the attitudes of others. But what comes from within ourselves influences us equally and sometimes more intensely. What we think, what we feel, emotions, and also our joys and fears.

And here lies our strength, in the ability to choose what we think, and to count on quiet and inner peace, telling us that everything will be fine, that we should trust in it. That nature is wise and will give us the strength to go through difficulties. Trust in life. Breathe deeply, and calm our restlessness. Treat ourselves with love. Comfort our fears, as we do with a child. Allow ourselves the depth that will emerge from this transcendent silence. Just trust.