The Secret Power of Silence – 7 Advantages of Keeping Quiet!

We live in a noisy world, in which more and more people are looking for a conscious way into silence, whether alone in nature or as a specific exercise for mental strengthening. Absolute silence is in vogue, in this article we’ll show you there’s much more to be found in silence than an absence.

1. Silence lets you get you in touch with yourself

Did you know? All day long you’ve been on the phone for your company, in between meetings, giving a speech, at home listening to the worries of your partner or the children. When the phone rings and your best friend needs advice, you just don't have the energy anymore, you've heard so much today that you feel like you're not yourself anymore. It’s only when you take some time out, in silence just for you, that you feel like your true self is coming back to you.

Auditory stimuli can really pull us from our center, even when you go into a quiet place, you can still hear the chatter of the day for quite a while, so much have the sound waves burned a presence into our being. In seclusion and in silence you can perceive your breath, organize your thoughts and get a better overview of your life.

2. Intuition speaks in silence

It’s not for nothing that silence is called golden. In silence you can finally perceive the inner voices again, somewhere in the noise of everyday life your inner voice may try to warn you, cheer you up or provide you with new ideas. But in the hustle and bustle you can hardly hear the fine sound of intuitions, only in silence, meditation or a walk in the silence of nature does your intuition find your hearing again.

Our intuitive side has the ability to move us forward enormously fast if we listen to it. It springs from inner wisdom and gut feeling. There we perceive much more complex things than we do with our everyday senses. The ancient Romans practiced silence in their bathhouses, working only half the day and spending the other half in idleness, preferably near water. Talking was very muffled, if at all, only in certain rooms.

They achieved more in silence than if they had remained in busy activity all day.

3. True creativity springs from silence

Our creative power is closely connected with silence; it is here that the right new and good ideas are found. Instead of working laboriously on mental tasks, creativity can be received with ease in silence. As a stressed big city workaholic, silence can seem scary to you at first. It's normal for stress to be louder at first.

You have the sound pollution of your body and sometimes negative inner voices. Maybe they even complain and say: You can't do that, you can't do that, or no one has ever done that before. It's best to just observe such objections or ignore them. Go deeper into silence and stillness. Many beginners find it easier to get started in nature and movement than in sitting.

You can just go for a walk without consciously wanting anything, don't speak while doing so, and keep the inner dialogue quiet, see if you suddenly have new creative ideas at the end of the walk or during the rest of the day.

4. Silence helps you to let go of stress and tension.

In our everyday lives, we underestimate how much sound and speech can stress us out. In fact, sounds and gentle caresses can calm us down; conversely, language, words that barrage us, or the everyday onslaught of auditory information can send us into violent tension.

Sometimes even the things you have to say all day but don't actually want to may be annoying. Sound pollution can permanently disrupt our perception. In the Indian healing art Ayurveda the purification of sound is a well known practice. In the Vipassana Silence Ritual, we consciously abstain from speech for some time.

The mind clears in an unbelievable way. Those who keep this up for a seven- or ten-day seminar report a completely new view of the world. With mental clarification, never before experienced visions of oneself and one's own goals arise.

5. Silence improves your relationships and friendships

Sometimes all the talking in the world won’t help your partner and you, you just don't understand each other at the moment. If you feel like you have to constantly explain yourself or say something, just abstain. Instead of getting more and more entangled in misunderstandings, you can try a joint phase of silence.

Agree with your partner on a period of time in which you don't discuss anything or only the most necessary things with each other. If you do have something important to say, then only talk to each other in hushed tones. You will notice that the space between the two of you is cleansed by the silence. Sensitive people can perceive a purification of the whole living climate through the silence.

6. The brain renews itself in silence

Researchers found that brain cells regenerate differently and faster in silence than under sound. In fact, one area of the brain is particularly responsive to silence: the hippocampus is the part of the human brain where learning takes place and memories and emotions are re-evaluated.

When the hippocampus recovers from stress in silence and forms new cells, the way you perceive the world changes. Suddenly, you see many things with different or more positive eyes. The researchers further linked the effect to depressive moods. These are basically based on recurring negative emotional evaluation patterns.

In people with severe depressive moods, the hippocampus shows significant abnormalities. Do you know periods of sadness? Then you could consciously meet them with silence next time.

7. Silence reveals new feelings

If the constant chatter and stress stop, you can finally feel again. Many people who take periods of silence report an initially exhausting time of sound withdrawal. Some even suffer from the ever louder grumblings, the inner voices, but then something strange happens, in one fell swoop a completely new world of feelings erupts.

For many of us, these authentic feelings lie buried in our everyday lives. They are so quiet and yet so sublime and great that we can only find them in silence. If you'd like to experience this, give it a try. Regularly surrender yourself to the power of silence. It is enough to start with small sessions, but if you enjoy it, you will automatically want to do more and more.

Your body will quickly notice what does it good and will support you in your search for peace and contemplation.