SHUSH

After a huge quarrel with her parents Sara stormed out of her house to take a brisk walk to release tension and get some fresh air. Walking on those familiar streets, hearing voices. Birds chirping, vehicles coming and going out occasionally. She happened to take a wrong turn, her each step’s speed decreased with every 2-3 seconds… just 5 mins down and she started feeling sorry for talking the way she did, suddenly her parent’s perspective came into picture and made more sense to her than it ever did, that’s a first time she thought to herself. Standing with discomfort on that motionless path where she wasn’t able to hear anything except herself.

Hey there it’s Iris,

I have a question for you, it has no perfect response just an explanation which can be subjective but is necessary to have your version of answer to.

So, what is Silence? 

For me, Silence is in those few moments we experience when we wake up, the first feeling in the morning when we haven’t been able to function our never ending to do list for the day. It is inside us all, and that silence is very personal, it’s an inner calling almost like an opportunity to introspect. In fact, not just that it’s the basis of solving the puzzle of life, connecting dots and making sense of your entirety. They are extremely valuable moments with self.

Just few days ago I was trying to embrace silence after a long eventful episode of my life, when I felt curious to know the most silent place on earth. Browsing through, I had visions of forests, mountain peaks, between the seas etc. in my head but to my surprise it wasn’t what I thought it would be instead it was a room in the headquarters of Microsoft in Washington. The unique technology makes the room so quiet that a person can hear his heartbeat and even the cracking of bones while making a move after a point of time. Fascinated by silence in between the chaos, I continued reading the article and dig further deep into it.

A thought provoking fact caught my eye, which mentioned about a set of people who were interviewed after visiting the room . Few of them found it calming and even cried in peace while few of them felt nauseous and started vomiting in disgust. The stark difference of responses kept me captivated and I wasn’t able to help but ponder to reason it.

The next day, looking straight into nothing for a long time, I got my answer…Almost like it was there the whole time.

Most of us are running in a race, trying to be as productive as possible. From Not recognizing something as basic as our own presence and appreciating the fact that we are the smartest animal on earth or we were able to swim through a million sperms to be the lucky one to things which are subject to self-awareness like knowing what you always do but are too ignorant to appreciate. We try to comfort ourselves in between the noise to deliberately move away from our inner self to never have to face what’s going inside us, with us, within us.

Hearing every breath, heartbeat and bone’s movement makes  people remind of their own presence which is like peeping into a room you have been asked to stay away from, unpleasant reality check away from the world somewhere deep inside causing a sense of displeasure.

What Sara felt is what she always knew, that silence challenged her to introspect and then connect the dots of her puzzle, to finally make sense of arguments her parents made. Your spirit knows the answer to all your questions and even to things you have never thought of before, it’s there sitting inside you calling out your name, but to hear the calling one needs to Shush.

To some of you, the idea of having sometime with your silence might sound crazy… I mean who has time for that?  Instead, just talk your problems out or maybe seek advice from someone whom you trust. The good news is that you don’t need a counselor because at the end of the day we recover from a therapy or find a solution because we are willing to find it in ourselves. Believe it or not, Silence isn’t empty it is full of answers. It’s when the more quiet you become the more you are able to hear things you haven’t been able to listen to.

Be it German scripts saying ‘Sprechen est Silber,Schweigen ist golden’ meaning Speech is silver, Silence is golden,  Indian Scriptures saying ‘ Yogasya Pratamam dwaram vaang nirodha’  meaning You won’t find the pearl you’re looking for if you constantly keep churning the ocean water. You need to let stillness set in for the pearl to appear or any other reading around the world , all of them mention about the importance of silence and how it is a vital source of contribution to realise things we tend to ignore in the commotion of life. As we get mature and age, we learn it has always been important and so many things would have been positively different if we heard ourselves in silence.

Now, if you are walking too fast, take a ‘wrong turn’ and get comfortable with your silence.