Speech is silver, silence is golden. Modern civilisation has taught us to convert night into day and golden silence into noise. Is it any wonder we feel burned out, over stimulated, miserable, lacking, wired at times?
This month we welcome in some silence, and change our relationship to it.
Silence isn’t a punishment. This month in class perhaps we'll begin to alter our perception... Realise that quiet not an absence, a lack of sound… silence is in fact presence.
Silence gives you the space to feel the energy of people around you. When you next socialise, how about slowing down the first part of the interaction you know the one; HowAreYou?YeahI’mGoodThanksYou?YeahGoodThanks. -A bit of silence would be golden there because that whole thing is meaningless!? Look at the other person, make eye contact. You’ll really see them when you make space for a bit of silence, you might even get a bit of a read on their energy. When you quieten down one form of communication, others, more subtle ones will sharpen.
Silence allows us to breathe. Indeed, when I’m training teachers, I encourage them to think about how much talking they do during class. Talking a lot when you’re new to teaching (or feeling socially awkward), is quite common. We might think we have most value when we’re sharing knowledge or being entertaining. As we mature in ourselves as people, we begin to realise our value and worth is not based solely on what we’re saying (and who determines anyone’s worth or value anyway… but that’s a whole other rant).
Those of us who try to constantly fill the silence will leave an event feeling breathless, ragged and exhausted. Over talking is something to consider. In yoga we like to relax enough for the breath to lengthen itself out. Talking (gasp) requires short (gasp) sharp in- breaths (gasp) and the words ride the exhale. The exhale is the letting go breath, we’ve been exploring in class recently just allowing it to happen, the body so passive, it is being exhaled. It’s such a sweet feeling, one we miss if we’re always talking, or stimulated by devices and other distractions.
Join the Wednesday class for a month of sessions where we recognise all the noise we’re bombarded with; auditory, informational and internal.
I’ll looking forward to guiding you to get below the noise, so you feel the freedom of not having to exist constantly in reaction to what is being said. To just be.