“Silence.” What have we lost in today’s noisy, distracting, frenetic society?
The pace of life seems to be constantly quickening. Everyone senses it. Just ask. With the quicker pace of time, seems to also come a lot more noise. Just as I’m enjoying the sounds of a gentle breeze rustling the late summer leaves, I am interrupted by the sounds of an airplane thundering overhead. Cell phones and other modern gadgets are notorious for interrupting our focus and our thoughts.
Silence is not actually a natural state of the world around us. Before all the man-made sounds, the sounds we experienced were the sounds of nature. If you spend time truly isolated in nature, you will notice that the sounds of the birds, crickets, frogs and other creatures are nearly constant, and loud! So where can we go to find silence? Many people are turning to mindfulness practices to fulfill the yearning for stillness and silence in an otherwise hectic world. Though noises may persist, we can find a way to be less reactive to them, in turn slowing the pace of life and regaining serenity and focus. Mindfulness practices are providing a way to quiet the mind. True silence resides within. Mindfulness is a way of attending within and discovering our own true nature of silence, stillness and serenity.
