A moving, energetic society is the society expected to achieve and create, expanding the already wonder filled age in which people live. Society rewards the achievements that arise making life better, safer and easier in which to live. Yet, the question remains: Is this the only way to create? Does society do itself a service with all this frenetic activity?
Silence As a Listening Tool
In society, people often get consumed. Each day spent among frantic activity has the opportunity to enhance achievement, while at the same time mangling humanity's capacity for silence.
Silence is not merely the absence of sound. Silence can be a deafeningly loud call to create and achieve without the frantic hurry to get past one achievement to another. Silence can open a space to listen, to listen to the silence, to hear the gap in the void created by the lack of noise. This silence allows for communication not with others but with the self and all the ideas that grow out of discovering an authentic self.
Challenging the Social Mainstream
There is no doubt that people want to fit into the mainstream. Neither is there doubt that people want to be a part of the incredible developments that this humanity, in this society, has been able to achieve. But, is society ready to recognize that there are many ways to do this, to be a part of the successes that define the society as a whole.
Silence
To be silent, to be consciously aware of being silence leaves the society open to listening. Often the voices heard in this carefully constructed silence are the voices of those on the margins, those who are lost in the high tech society and need help to become an integral part of the society.
This silence gives voice to the act of listening, an act often neglected in a high strung, technological wonder world. In silence it becomes possible to hear the trees rustle, notice the climate change and feel the presence of the pain of other species. Should society forget that these voices too need attention if the global community, made possible by the noise, is to actually survive?
Understanding Silence In a New Way
In the midst of the noise, embrace the silence, engage it and be surprised by how much it has to say. See the silence not as a void, but as an opening to that which one might not be able to define immediately, but rather to something that may take a while to grow and germinate as one hears the new things that silence often screams.
How to Engage This Silence
Silence is everywhere, but it must be noticed and consciously embraced. Some of the easiest ways to find profound silence is meditation, in which one closes ones eyes and simply counts one's breaths in and out ignoring the racing thoughts that are often carried around.
Another good way to find silence is to go out into nature and walk or sit. There is silence present in the sounds of nature when one simply allows the self to experience it. The act of silence can also be achieved by simply turning off the television, the phone and sitting silently in a room and allowing the silence to wash over the self. The silence is there, one just has go out and seek it.
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