How often do you make time for silence in your routine, whether a personal or a professional one? Do you feel troubled by the lack of spoken word or noises around you? We’re so used to non-stop chatter and communication that switching all of the voices off becomes a nearly impossible task. At the same time, it’s a rather important one.
Both artists and entrepreneurs recognize the power of silence for getting those creative juices flowing. The absence of media, communication and other people allows for a deeper look inside oneself, a look that can lead to effective analysis and uncovering hidden talents.
Reasons Why Silence is so Important
Do you feel that you need to renew your creative voice? Many people are stuck in a similar way. They’ve lost touch with their inner voice and they rely on all of the noise to cover for the emptiness that they feel.
Silence allows for a better focus. It creates an introspective environment. In the beginning, this introspection will feel awkward and incredibly uncomfortable. As you open up to the information hidden inside of yourself, however, you’ll discover the fact that silence can be empowering.
Enjoying the silence heightens your sensitivity and you become more aware of yourself and your surroundings. This may be one of the most potent solutions for overcoming burnout and blocks that most creative/entrepreneurial people have to struggle with time and time again.
You can reach a much higher level of self-awareness by having silent sessions. Silence can help you analyze your actions or the lack of such. You’ll examine those with much more clarity than ever before, realizing what’s important and what’s not. In essence, such sessions are the key to growing as a person and an intellectual.
The chance to go through an emotional cleansing is tremendously liberating and purifying. Stress, anxiety and even health problems are often caused by the buildup of clutter, chronic stress and too much needless information. Silence allows you to put all of these on the back-burner and focus on the things that matter the most to you.
We’re Becoming Less Connected with Ourselves
Creative people are incredibly aware of the blockages that stand in their way. This is why they understand much better than other people that we’re becoming less connected with ourselves.
We no longer enjoy authentic “me” time. These moments are usually filled with the internet and online communication. People are no longer alone in the real sense of the world. They don’t dream and refrain from having long conversations with the person that matters the most – themselves.
It’s adequate to say that we’re leading a shallower existence than ever before. By keeping ourselves busy with meaningless communication, we’re freeing ourselves from the responsibility of tackling more important affairs. Self-reflection is becoming increasingly rare. People don’t allow themselves to get bored and find something beneficial in the boredom. Their smartphone is always nearby, providing cheap entertainment and filling up the time that could have been dedicated to something much more beneficial.
How to Get Started with Creative Silence
All of this may sound great in theory but when it comes to finding creativity in silence, few people know how to get started.
For a start, it’s very important to get rid of the distractions until you internalize the right routine. Keep the computer in the other room. Turn off your phone or disconnect it from the wireless network. If the temptation is simply too strong, you can go to the nearby park or a public area without your phone, tablet or ebook reader.
Let your mind wonder. Let the inner voice speak. Initially, it will be a bit meek and uncertain. It will be unfocused and you’re not going to experience that a-ha moment right from the start.
As you continue to have that inner conversation, you’ll sooner or later focus on the things that matter the most. You’ll start zooming in on issues, projects you haven’t carried out yet and new ideas. You can see these sessions as brainstorming periods that help you unlock the hidden potential covered by layers and layers of meaningless clutter.
These are the reasons why silence is such an important component for successful meditation. It cleanses the mind, calms down the inner anger and strips everything unnecessary from the picture. Achieving such a level of mindful silence takes time. Don’t rush it. Enjoy the process and you’ll soon be moving from a passive silent person to an active one.
Eventually, you’ll learn how to make silence and your imagination work together. You’ll probably increase the length of the silent retreats and start enjoying them more. It may be a good idea to bring paper and pen to these sessions. Once you overcome the initial blocks, you’ll probably get dozens of ideas crossing your mind. Take a note, reveal the records later on and focus on the fragments of your imagination that appear to be most exciting, intriguing or beneficial in the long run.
Don’t rush into anything when it comes to becoming a creative person. You will get to merge the silent and the practical world sooner or later. In the beginning, your sessions will be chaotic and they’ll bring a lot to the surface. Needless to say, not all of these creative ideas will be adequate ones. Take some time to sort through everything your imagination has brought to reality. Use your intuition and intellectual power. The sky is the limit when it comes to creative silence and the sooner you master it, the greater your accomplishments are going to be.
Contributing author: Alicia Honeycutt
