Taking Time To Be Quiet

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now and even had a headline ready when I realized that Kate Motaung’s Five Minute Friday prompt for the day is ‘quiet’. I don’t believe in coincidences, so here I am putting this post out today.

Taking Time To Be Quiet

Most of us are addicted to productivity. We feel restless and guilty when we’re not doing something. But quiet times are necessary for all of us. For those of us who write, taking time to be still and inactive, helps us much more than we might realize. Do you remember taking time to be quiet anytime recently?

Brené Brown says that the biggest mistake can be seeing solitude as a luxury. No, it’s absolutely vital for us to cultivate quiet times. In fact, we need to work a time for solitude into our daily routine.

I was reading an interesting article which featured Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Centre, in which she spoke of a study done a number of years ago. People were put in a room and told them to be with themselves, they were given the option of just sitting by themselves or [electrically] shocking themselves. And you know what? A huge percentage of people chose to shock themselves rather than sit with themselves! What a sad reflection on us all.

There was a time when I was uncomfortable with quiet and solitude. I had to turn the television on or do some activity to avoid quiet. But over the years, I’ve seen the value of taking time for solitude and reflection.

Here is why I (and wiser souls) think taking time to be quiet is necessary:

1. If we are to create, to write, we need the quiet to get our thoughts together. To reflect. To be.

Serious thinking, inspired thinking, can seldom arise from texts sent while eating lunch or driving a car. Responding to these inputs generates as much thought, and as much inspiration, as swatting so many flies. They deaden both the mind and soul.

Raymond M. Kethledge, Lead Yourself First: Inspiring Leadership Through Solitude

2. We need to remind ourselves that the world will go on without us. Our ‘work’ need not be hectic activity. Sometimes our ‘work’ in this world is to just be ourselves. I’m always fascinated by the sadhus (hermits) reflecting in the mountains and forests cloistered nuns and priests who live in isolation from the world, and yet, I’m certain that the energy they generate through their prayer and meditation impacts us all.

Work is not always required … there is such a thing as sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.

George MacDonald

3. Our quiet times are when we can connect with our inner selves, face our fears, do the healing work within and dig deep to find resources to be the best version of ourselves.

Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within.

Jennifer Welwood

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally we sit down for a while.

Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi

I hope I’ve convinced you to give yourself a regular gift of quiet times.