"Silence is a source of great strength." - Laoiz
2,500 years ago, Laozi, the founder of Daoism, uttered the words: "Silence is a source of great strength." And today, 25 centuries later, those words still ring true! Spending time in silence can have a profound effect on our lives. How?
1. Silence teaches us respect
In quiet reflection, we learn to appreciate the value of the people and things we have in our lives. Silence allows us to listen deeply to our friends and family.
2. Silence focuses attention on the whole
In today's world, our attention is divided between our electronic devices, our jobs, and the things we do for fun. Silence teaches us to refocus on the whole and notice things we might otherwise miss.
3. In silence, we learn to appreciate nature
Especially when we surrender to the silence in nature, our quiet thinking listens to the Earth, and we begin to appreciate all that Mother Nature does so that our lives can be perfected. We will never look at trees the same way again.
4. Silence helps us reconstruct our thoughts
Silent thinking helps us take fragmented thoughts and combine them into a concise whole. This is especially useful if we have big ideas in our heads that we need to present to others, or goals that we want to set for ourselves.
5. Silence fights overstimulation
As mentioned earlier, our lives cause our minds to be fragmented. Along with the fast pace of life, we can easily become overwhelmed by too much stimulation from the environment. How often do you sit down and read a book? And it is silence that teaches us to slow down the pace of life.
6. Silence teaches us humanity
When we allow ourselves to think about humanity in silence, we realize that we, and everyone else, have our imperfections. We are often hypocritical, but sometimes we have radically different beliefs.
7. Silence fills us with love
Although we are aware that we are imperfect and sometimes radically different, quiet reflection leads us to realize that we all have our own unique entity and unique life. Others feel pain, just like we do. And silence shows us love.
8. Silence makes us brave
You may think that courage is facing danger, but courage is more often than not, facing yourself! Thinking quietly takes courage in itself. They forced us to be with ourselves and our thoughts. No distractions. We simply sit in silence and commune with ourselves. And this can really teach us a lot!
