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True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.  ~William Penn

Absolute silence. When is the last time you really enjoyed it?

These days we seem to go to great lengths to avoid it. We constantly talk and tweet and email and FaceBook. We consume great quantities of stuff to fill the voids in our days, from books and blogs to video games and movies. We keep the TV or the radio on for “company.”  We seek out every distraction imaginable.

We’ve developed this insistent need to be constantly stimulated, constantly plugged in. We’re afraid that if we disconnect ourselves – even for a minute – we’ll miss out on something really important. But by not disconnecting, we are missing out on something very important – ourselves.

All that noise drowns us out. It keeps us from hearing our own inner voice, and distracts us from thinking our own thoughts. It rushes us through out daily lives like a raging river. It shakes us awake from our dreams.

Why are we so eager to spend time with everyone else’s ideas, rather than our own?  When did spending some quiet time alone become a social stigma instead of a refreshing break from it all?

We need to bring more quiet into our lives. We need to give ourselves the opportunity to think more clearly about who we are, and where we’re headed. We need to push all that noise aside so that our own ideas can come into focus. We need to get comfortable with silence again and relax into it like a big comfy armchair with a warm cup of tea.

Unwind. Decompress. Just be.