Silence- and why I crave it

 I work in a fast paced (my own doing by the way), demanding job (not my own doing- ask the children...) and I have noise all day long. Sometimes it is loud, sometimes it is not so loud. But it is always there. Some kind of noise from 7:00am when I arrive until 5pm when I leave. 

When I get home- again I'm not complaining here- my little boy is noisy until he goes to bed. Then I go for a walk and listen to a podcast- again more noise. It seems that I can't get away from it. 

Obviously we need noise to survive and communicate. If there was no noise, there would be no human race- simple as that. However, as I write this, my little boy is asleep and my wife is out. So I do actually have complete silence. To be honest- it feels like bliss. Utter bliss. 

I do think that we need a daily portion of silence. When we listen to sounds our brain is actually working to process these sounds and deciding if or how we need to respond to them. Are they exciting? Are they calming? Are they annoying? I would say a mixture of these to be completely honest. However they are though, the brain is working to process it. This is the key point. Working to process. Working. 

When I have silence, I feel like my brain is working a whole lot less and it feels magnificent. I mean real silence. Not having the telly on low- not having the radio on in the background. Genuine silence. I can feel my brain untying itself- even unknotting itself... relaxing... resetting. It is a need not a desire. I feel that I need this silence to allow my brain to recover in a similar way that our bodies need water and food to survive. We need to rest our brains in order to survive as well. Silence works for me. 

One thing I will try to do over the next few days and weeks will be to build in some genuine quiet time- silent time- to allow my brain to recover from the battering it takes on a daily basis. You may want to try it to. Just sit in a chair, or lie on a couch and just listen to the nothingness- feel your brain recovering and straightening out. 

We have a big mental health crisis in this country and I believe it has been brought on because we have demonised 'rest'. We have said that if you are not 'active' them this is some kind of sin. So you get told that you must not be 'idle' or inactive. This is very frowned upon isn't it. You must be doing something. 

Well this attitude has led in my opinion to our current crisis. People have for 200 years been sleepwalking into an early grave or at best a mental breakdown. 'He couldn't cope so he had a breakdown...' is something I have heard far too much. Yes- because after working your fingers to the bone for 40 years- yes you will have a break down because life is hard and there is a breaking point somewhere.

I'm not saying that silence is the answer to our crisis, but raising awareness of various different brain health exercises could start to answer it. We need to get it into our heads that the brain, like the body, needs proper rest too. So try it today- sit in your chair, lie on your couch, switch everything off and simply listen to the golden silence. 

I also have a newsletter that I publish weekly called The Big Recall which focuses on topics similar to this. Why not sign up- after all- it's free, so why wouldn't you!

I also have a gardening newsletter- I find planting and mowing to be fabulous for our mental health, and it is something my wife and I enjoy together- it is called Gardening Weekly and you can read it here

Thanks for reading and taking the time. Remember- silence is golden.