Why We Need To Appreciate The Hidden Beauty Of Silence In A World Filled With Noise
The frantic world of the digital age has brought new meaning to the word “noise.”
There’s that favorite ringtone, the non-stop gossiping on the phone, the mere clicking on the keyboard, the loud volume of the flat screen TV due to the non-existent willpower to turn it off even when there's nothing intriguing to watch — even the vibration of your tablet creates its own buzzing sound.
Have you ever noticed that you feel as if time goes by more slowly when you don’t hear that text message ringtone? Or how you feel frustrated when there’s no notification sound from your Twitter account in a whole five minutes?
If you’re one of these people, don’t worry, you are not alone.
These feelings of annoyance, disappointment and just plain impatience are common because the noises have actually somehow brought comfort to us -- a reassuring sense that we are in some way needed because a person has left a message or called or responded to an email.
When these sounds do not come, another type of noise manifests: the one inside of our heads, the one asking why he didn’t call, why they didn’t tell me about that new rumor, why my so-called friend didn’t see my Facebook message last week.
Without all these noises, we feel somehow disconnected, ignored and unappreciated. This is one of those perfect times when we can attest to how deafening a moment of silence can truly be. In reality, all humans long to feel important and needed.
Unfortunately, all of these gadgets have filled huge parts of our lives to help us feel more valuable. These sounds penetrate our everyday lives in the sense that we don’t regard them as anything out of the ordinary anymore.
The music of modernity has flowed with the rhythm of our generation, making Millennials unaware of how these mundane sounds have turned into subtle noises that deprive us of one simple aspect we often fail to embrace: the beauty of silence.
We don’t realize that without all these noises swirling around us, we are actually granted the opportunity to hear one sound to which we don’t pay enough attention: our own voices.
We have the chance to relish in the wonders of staying still, quiet, in our own thoughts and embracing the joy of listening to no one else.
Give yourself freedom from all the noise. Allow yourself to feel delight wherever silence takes you. Wherever you are, turn off your phone, computer or television. Whether you’re standing, sitting or walking, just pause for a while, close your eyes and breathe deeply.
Then, open your eyes, marvel at the simple beauty that’s all around you, appreciate what you have and think about one thing that makes you smile genuinely.
If we do this more often, then maybe we won’t depend so much on the everyday noises we have been so accustomed to hearing.
We’ll appreciate more of the simple, yet wondrous things around us and the meaningful thoughts we think that could prompt us to live with stronger senses of purpose.
