I’ve always been fascinated by silence and how it can be an action of weakness or an action of strength. It can be perceived as an action of understanding or a lack of understanding. Throughout my life I have definitely chosen silence and the art of listening as my default as opposed to over expressing my thoughts and words, but this has worked both for and against me.

Silence is a wonderful thing and I think it’s both misunderstood and somewhat underestimated as a form of strength. In many cases, in many rooms, the loudest and most extroverted person always seems to be perceived as the most knowledgeable and charismatic person, but that is also greatly dependent on the room, and the people inside it.

I went to a monastery in India once where the monks had all taken a vow of silence. The vow of silence is taken by many monks and general people alike to invoke a sacrifice, in order to better understand the world, to learn to listen, to remove what is a fundamental part of most humans lives in order to develop other aspects. The whole principle behind it was both profound and incredibly selfless. Thinking about that moment of seeing those monks raised many questions in my head, about better understanding myself, the world around me and what it means to be a human. I had read about vows of silence before or vows of anything in that regard to take a firm stance with yourself for self-improvement and devoting an aspect of yourself to help improve the world as a whole.

I was listening to a podcast recently with Dr Robert J. Waldinger who is a physiatrist and Zen priest who has taken a vow of servitude to relieve the suffering that’s optional in the world which is amazing and I will dive deeper into his work and book ‘The Good Life’ along my search for happiness over the next year, but I just wanted to highlight how a vow like this or a vow of silence doesn’t just take away something but imparts a much deeper focus on achieving an objective set out to pursue.

Thinking about silence and how the act brings focus into yourself had always been a wonderful thought in my life. Sometimes the most impactful conversations of my life have been almost completely in silence, my silence anyhow. I think the ability to converse without pre-emptively constructing your response is a key attribute in the search for happiness. It is obviously important to speak, express, and converse with others but for me especially, I love to listen, I love to hear and I enjoy the utmost silence. Sometimes the deepest silence can be the most profound and sometimes the ultimate silence can instil the ultimate happiness as you learn to listen to the world around you.

Take a moment to embrace the silence, listen for longer and hear things you may never give yourself the time to hear. Who knows what treasures you may find.

Thanks,

Dean