Can Silence Promote Focus?
The little coincidences in life are often quite amusing to me. Sometimes something I heard or talked about months ago find themselves coming full circle in my desire to grow and change. Last October I attended the Women of Faith Conference here in North Carolina. One of the speakers there, Patsy Clairmont, was talking about finding the stillness to listen. She said sometimes she can just hear the words “Shut up, in the name of Jesus, Shut up.” I laughed with the audience, but that quote has stayed with me ever since. There have been times when I have wanted to say it to other people, but mostly I just use it to remind myself and my ongoing chatter in my head to just “Shut Up!”. I know, I don’t like those words either and like most moms I taught my daughter that they weren’t nice to say, but sometimes when it comes to myself—they are the words I need to hear most.
Romy came home a couple days (or weeks) ago talking about Gandhi. She read about him in school. The funny (interesting) thing was that I had just read something about him with my students that same week. She and I both found it interesting that Gandhi vowed one day a week to refrain from speaking. “Gandhi dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth and his principles included vegetarianism and simple living. He regularly abstained from speaking, believing silence brought him inner peace.” (http://www.soton.ac.uk/supportus/broadlands/stories_archives_gandhi.shtml)
I found the following quotes that helped me to understand why Gandhi or anyone might want to do that:
“For a seeker of Truth like me, silence is of great help.
The soul can see its path clearly during silence and everything
starts looking crystal clear, which otherwise would have been
difficult to grasp or possibly misunderstood. Our life is a search
for Truth and the soul needs inner repose and peace to reach
the peak of its greatness.”
- Mahatma Gandhi (Found at
http://sant-asarambapu.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/05/mahatma-gandhi-the-message-of-silence.htm)
“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a
clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves
itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and
arduous quest after Truth. “ ~Mahatma Gandhi (Found at
Now, as many people already know about me, when I don’t understand the why of something, I am like a dog hanging on to the end of the rope being pulled as I growl to maintain a grasp. I want to understand. This week as I am seeking focus the words “silent”, “silence”, “quietness” kept leaping out. I wondered, “Would keeping silent help quiet the ongoing dialogue in my heart and mind? Could this be a missing key for me in discovering the peace I am searching for.” Mother Teresa said “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence.... We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~Mother Teresa (Found at http://www.quotegarden.com/silence.html)
In my reading, in my intellectuality, I can’t help but wonder if all the noise and words that I take in and give off keep me from focusing on God and his purpose for me. I turned to the Bible as that is supposed to be a guide for life and found a number of quotes that talk about keeping quiet, but here are two that stood out:
“A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;”
“If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.”
--Job 13:5
When I read the verse from Job again the words from Patsy Clairmont resounded through my head “Shut up (Robin), in the name of Jesus, Shut up.” So that leads me to my challenge to do just that. Tuesday’s are my “shut up” days for the summer. Today is my first day and it is so much harder than I could have imagined. I am so used to daily living and noise being my escape from really thinking and being reflective. Like many people, I suppose, it is hard to be alone with your thoughts. It takes facing fears and feelings pushed deep down resurfacing. In the silence of my voice today, I am also striving to realign my life to a more simple and peaceful way. I like to stay busy and chatter to my dogs, family, and friends, because it also keeps me from feeling the areas I most need to grow. I am hoping that as I challenge myself to keep a day of silence each week this summer, I will get a step closer to quieting my mind so that I can live more purposefully and peacefully. The noises of everyday living can get so loud. So I am going to try to “shut up” and listen, really listen.
Well, how did it work?
Let me just say the whole not talking thing is hard and I mean really hard. But, on the plus side I stayed pretty focused on it. I did have to talk when the UPS man delivered my favorite grape juice from California, but it would have been rude to not acknowledge his greeting. Romy tricked me into talking once. Of course, I took the two and half hours while visiting with a friend, but even then I tried really hard to stay reserved in my talking.
I did get some benefits out of not talking today –
- I got more exercise: Instead of bellowing over Romy’s television for her to come downstairs, I had to walk up and down the stairs several times. I couldn’t call the dogs in so I had to be in their vicinity so they could hear and respond to my hand-claps.
- I couldn't allow myself to get caught up in arguing with Romy when I shook my head no about something and she demanded to know why. I think this was really frustrating for her, but I didn't feel so aggravated.
- I couldn’t say mean things to myself in the mirror as I was getting ready for the day. Amazing what the power of voicing words has over me. But today, I couldn’t say anything, so I smirked at myself and thought – “Ha…so there!” It was refreshing and I felt better about myself all day.
- I thought a lot about the power of spoken words. How many words we use in thoughtless chatter and half-hearted responses.
- I had to focus on this task all day. I spent time thinking about being silent to hear God.
- Sean has had a very quiet evening. I couldn’t ask him to do anything and we spent a nice dinner talking silently through actions. It was kind of fun.
- I had time to write today. I miss writing.
Overall I think this was a very good thing for me to try. I am going to try again next week and perhaps every Tuesday through the summer.
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