Taking the time to be quiet

Why does it seem that most of us fear letting ourselves become quiet?
In truth, I must be included in this unfortunate generalization. Virtually every person I have spoken to has readily stated that being quiet is either a daunting challenge or something they have no concept of.
How many times, as a child, were we chided for “doing nothing”? Sitting around dreaming seemed to be something that really irked our parents. Even the Bible says something about “idle hands are the devils workshop”.
I feel the why is not really important at this juncture. What is important is that we gain an understanding of how absolutely important it is for us to take time to be quiet and do a little “nothing time”.
There are two aspects of being quiet that I would like to focus on. The first is taking time to be quiet and secondly, learning to be quieter generally in your relationship with yourself.
We have created a very noisy and busy world to live in. There is so much information for us to continually process. It seems to be a never ending job and we are determined to keep up! We even have created multi-billion dollar industries to not only support this business but to perpetuate it. How many ipads have been sold already?
Taking time to enter the quiet is an absolute essential for our own overall personal health. When we push ourselves, by keeping ourselves “external” for really long periods of time, eventually our body and mind forces us to stop and internalize.
It is a requirement of our infinite design to stop and become quiet. If we work so hard we unconsciously shut down into an involuntary “quiet time”, we risk the possibility of creating an accident or other undesirable event.
So why do we keep pushing ourselves like that? Rather than constantly running ourselves down and risking accidents, if we purposely took the time to enter the quiet, if only for a few minutes, we rejuvenate ourselves and be more effective at what we are doing. The scariest part for some people is that it feels so good!
The second aspect focuses on the importance of taking quiet time to improve your relationship with yourself.
How many people really know themselves? How many people do you know that take the time to really listen to what is going on in their heads?
Instead of listening, we choose to overload our heads with extraneous information. We doodle for hours with our “cell phone come cyber encyclopedias” while breaking our eardrums with overly loud music from earphones shoved in our ears.
I have long been an advocate for taking quiet times regularly. This can include meditating but is not intended to focus on such. My intention is just to advocate people regularly taking time to stop the incessant flow of activity and become totally idle for even five minutes. I support taking the time to listen to what is rolling around in your head… and honor it. Sometimes this can feel scary but it is so important for our overall health!
I am currently choosing to transition my life from being one of excessive busy-ness to one of a softer, easier approach to the affairs of my days. I still have lots to fill my days with but I am choosing to work with myself to make gaps in my days where I have nothing planned and nothing I “have” to think about. I am choosing to leave these spaces open for two reasons; first to give my mind space to speak to me so I can honor and address some of its concerns and the other to allow the universe time to speak to me. After all, how can God (in whatever form I know him) speak to me if I never shut up?
I am not finding it easy to do this quiet thing. Even though it is something I have practiced and advocated for many years. It is a constant challenge. However, recognizing the benefits of the quiet times make it so worthwhile!
One of the tools I was given for entering the quiet more easily is contained on the CD in the back of my Stamp Out Stress book. It teaches how to install and use an on/off switch in your head so you can have those moments of bliss I call just being quiet.
My book is available through any bookstore or through my website www.stampoutstress.net . or my main website www.montyritchings.com
Wishing you a quiet, calm life.
Namaste
Monty