The Power of Silence

What happens when you close your eyes and sit in silence? Nothing. At first, nothing happens. But then, something does, and it’s rarely pleasant. The silence gives way to noise—an overwhelming, chaotic surge of thoughts, emotions, and memories. An old, forgotten tune resurfaces. A meme you saw a week ago replays in your mind. An unpaid bill you forgot about emerges from the back of your mind. Suddenly, a hundred tabs are open in your brain, each one playing a different video, all relaying a million pieces of fragmented information at once. It's exhausting. Yet, this discomfort is the very power of silence—it reveals the true nature of your mind: its restlessness, its frenzy and even its beauty.

We have a never-ending stream of thoughts, emotions and feelings. We get carried away by their flow without even realizing it, passive and powerless. But if we continue to sit in silence despite the discomfort, sooner or later comes a moment of awareness. In this moment, we realize how far we’ve been carried by the stream. The thought we started with is now distant from the one we are currently having, yet they’re somehow connected. But, just as quickly as we become aware of this, the moment passes, and we’re swept away again by the current of our thoughts.

Over time, though, we become less disturbed by this flow. We learn to accept its presence, its rhythm and its play.

As we continue this journey of exploring silence, our awareness grows. Now instead of being at the mercy of the flow, we find ourselves sitting on the banks, watching the stream of our thoughts. We can see the thoughts form, flow and fade away. And in doing so, we begin to recognize how temporary and fragile these thoughts are.

As you watch this, you also become aware of how short-lived and temporary all these thoughts are—fragile like bubbles. They’re like bubbles—beautiful to look at, even enjoyable at times—but can we place the foundation of our being on them? Are we our thoughts, our emotions, or our feelings? Do we need to believe them all as truths?

Over time, we come to the realization that we are not our thoughts, and our thoughts are not the truth. This realization creates a separation between us and our thoughts—a thin sliver of space that lies between us, sitting on the banks and the stream of thoughts flowing by.

It’s within this space that change, growth and transformation begin. As we create more distance from the constant flow, we make room for love and kindness. We no longer feel captive to the endless cycle of our minds. We begin to see our patterns clearly and, rather than getting tangled in them, we start to unravel them. It’s in this space of awareness and acceptance that we get an opportunity to meet ourselves.