Quiet Spaces

There is an antidote for chaos. There is a balm for overwhelm.

Our world is louder than ever especially in information. Any glance online, or sneak peek of a news headline at the grocery story check out, results in an intense loudness of ideas. Even things not negative by nature must find ways to yell for attention in the sea of information.

As humans and more importantly as souls we are adapting. We are made to adapt but the pace, is not always rapid. We are also not going to adapt to something our soul does not need for it’s ultimate wellbeing. We can normalize things, but things that aren’t beneficial adaptions have a way of working themselves to the surface.

I don’t say this from a scientific perspective but from a spiritual one. New things can often leave us feeling overwhelmed or out of sorts, if those things line up with our authentic true expression, the adaptation to it leaves us feeling more whole. If the thing we are adapting to become normal and we start to feel more drained, more discontent and more unwell, it is not for us and we need to address this.

I say all of this because many of us have become used to the busyness of thought, action, sound and light that make up our lives. And I too actually love music on demand, youtube videos of content that big money would never make, audio messages from friends etc. I even contribute to this with content, written, audio and visual. But I will tell you a simple truth, we must have less. Or more importantly take some time away and have quiet. Which may seem like less but is in my opinion, something not just the removal of something else. Quiet, simple hours or days, is not truly less it’s different, and due to its potency it’s very much a powerful presence in and of itself.

I don’t say silence although that is beneficial in its own way, silence is more for meditation and actually more associated with stillness. Quiet is really fewer and subtler sound but also lets look at quiet schedules, or quiet content. Quiet thoughts. Quiet is a state we expect to be more active in than complete silence. Silence is for being and quiet is for soft doing.

A quiet schedule is not one of idleness but of spaciousness. Quiet content consumption is not nothing but one of less intense emotions and less flashiness of display. Quiet thoughts are not the raging big questions or the pummeling anxieties or even the exuberant celebrations. They are mindful, reflective, sensitive but not massively emotional. They both notice and limit story but not eliminate.

All of these things seem to breath deeply.

A life with more quiet, and more space becomes a poem in itself. Because poetry is defined not only by words but the space between them. The pause and the breath of it.

Our current world (in the average noise and information consumption) would be more like a tehcno dubstep mash up at a concert, maybe fun if your really intoxicated but anxiety producing if your not. I know not all of you are living on high speed, I only know that unless we really work at it, the pace of noise speeds up for most of us.

I invite quiet moments for all of us as an antidote to a world of loud. It may take a while to find yourself as a match for a quiet space but eventually, you may discover a rhythm, one that hums like peace.

This peace can exist while life is exciting, difficult, devastating, wonderful, boring or anything else.

And while it can be difficult in busy homes and busy lives to cultivate this, remember that you can move to quiter in small increments of time. Unload the dishwasher with no music or podcast and be there in it. Walk without using your phone, just pause in your home as you go out the door and just look at it, as it is, notice it.

This may all sound so simple but that is the point. Simple and quiet are the antidote to a world with so much intensity. May you cultivate it.