The most deafening noise this world seems it cannot handle is silence. I do have to admit though growing up and still to this day I have had a certain hatred for misplaced noise. I am more inclined to be introverted so silence may be more of my friend than others, but at the end of the day, I believe embracing silence is essential for all of humanity.

Road leading down a tunnel of trees with the sun shining through.

Why am I so opinionated on this you might be asking? Maybe it's because I am surrounded by millions of people who are trying to stay busy and doing whatever they can to avoid the silence and being still. My observation is that the reason why people avoid silence is due to the desire to not internally reflect. For some reason, it feels like western culture frowns upon looking within. Particularly for men, it is not the norm to do internal escapades of trying to embrace silence.

So it is my uneducated simplistic philosophy that embracing silence is a necessary commodity to process through the issues of life and essential self-discovery. The following points are reasons I believe you should embrace silence.

Clarity
When I was a kid, I lived in Minnesota. If you have never been there, it has lots of lakes and some rivers. Well, being young, having and older brother, and living in the country we would go out to play for hours outside. Many of these escapades included going to a local river under a railroad trestle that was nearby. Something I learned down there was when you build small dams or dig channels in the water you stir up the mud and make the water murky, but when you let the water be for a while is clears up so you can see what you have done and what else you should do. I think life is very similar in that when we work towards something, often we stir up the water, so it is necessary to take a moment and let everything settle. This allows for clarity of mind in the next appropriate steps of action.

Focus
When a man takes the time to sit down and embrace the silence with little to no distractions it empowers him to focus on what is occurring internally. Have you ever used a magnifying glass? Embracing the silence seems to have a very similar effect on our minds. When sitting in meditation or out in the wilderness with no distractions and silence, it allows you to gather all your mental power and focus it in on whatever topic you want. It may take a few tries to figure out how to do so, but this is a valuable tool I use all the time personally when I am faced with difficult situations in life.

Self-Discovery
When I have set apart time to just sit, meditate, think, and ponder I learn more about myself in minutes than I would in weeks of the busy bustle of life.

Cheers,

Timothy

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