Factually speaking, the word silence comes from the Latin word silens meaning to be still, quiet, or at rest. In English, it still maintains some of these meaning as most modern dictionaries define silence as the condition or quality of being or keeping still and silent, the absence of sounds, stillness or as a period of time without speech or noise. We all know that blooming flowers, twinkling stars and the rising sun specify beauty, but have you noticed that this beauty also has a hidden trait? It’s the beauty of silence.

Do you ever consider being in quiet for a while, when you feel upset about your life? Sometimes I feel that way. You know even after everything goes well still there comes a moment when we look for peace in our life. We look for a quiet place where we can sit and think alone. Silence is eternal, peaceful and makes our life as well as the lives of others beautiful. If used intelligently, it is a beautiful way to express emotions.

It is rightly said that speech is silver but silence is golden. When a person speaks, howsoever carefully, he is bound to make some slip of the tongue. And even a talk arising out of the heart with all the good intentions in the mind of the speaker, is liable to be misunderstood by the listeners. One of the evils by which modern society is debased is constant prattle, which is misuse of the power of speech.

Silence is something we don’t hear much about in today’s busy, energetic world.  We are surrounded by hurry, bustle, noise and activity in almost everything we do.  We have smart phones, tablets, computers, and a variety of other devices that invade and prevent silence from enveloping us. Silence allows us to notice things we overlook. Avoiding distractions allows us to focus more completely on important issues. Silence also allows us to hear things that are buried under the normal buzz of daily life.

We often use music to fill the silence, to replace words we don’t have. The thick beat releases your gravity-bound body, unfurling your soul from mortal skin. Music sets you free, imposing you to dance. But there has to be something, some force strong enough to hold you to this world, to bring you back from the pull of seductive music. For that, we have silence. The unseen and unheard power that hushes the raging winds of music and halts the dance, returning you freely to yourself. I believe in the importance of silence. I believe in the soft stillness it brings and the caress of its hand. I believe in breaking the battle of words and let the emotionlessness fill the room. I believe in putting the world on pause and let the quiet stillness permeate your thoughts.

There are many benefits of silence, in this article I have discussed some of them. One of the major reasons why silence has become an important part of everyday life is the ability to focus as the modern world and its various noises enter your brain all at once. The ability to focus on different tasks is often accompanied by a little background noise.

Without a doubt, creativity is an important part of life, and silence is an important part of the creative process. Some studies have shown how important silence is to the success of individuals as they move through the creative process. Many distractions and noises flood our world. You may never discover how you can improve your life when your attention is always being drawn away. However, you can improve your awareness by practicing silence. Taking time to self-reflect will help you figure out if your life is working the way you’d like it to. Another benefit of silence is that When struggling with the stresses and strains of life you may have difficulties with staying calm. Stress is one of the most difficult aspects of modern life.  A period of silence each day allows the chance to relax and reduce stress levels.

Constant noise from the media and our day-to-day lives causes many of us to miss out on the benefits of silence. In today’s fast-paced world, almost everyone has a short fuse for frustration. Learning to enjoy silence cultivates calmness and peacefulness. When you learn to savor silent moments, you’ll have more patience in daily hassles like traffic jams and long lines at the store. The brain needs time to think, reflect, and rest. It needs time to file away the stuff it has already learned and make room for the new information.

If you create quiet time during the day, you’re giving your brain the time to process any new information coming in. Silence gives us the opportunity to listen to others and more importantly to ourselves. When others speak or during a conversation, silence could be used as sort of politeness and respect that would make the communication successful (we will tackle this idea in depth in the next chapter (Examples of When to Use Silence)).

Yet the inner-silence also is very important. Since, it gives us a chance to listen to our inner voices. It helps us to turn our thoughts and focus inwards and live the present moment now not the past not the future. The inner-silence enables us to save our minds from the inane thoughts and eliminate all mental noises. Thus we make our minds calmer.

Finally, we could say that by listening to others we will gain respect and by listening to ourselves, we will not be afraid of the battles of life, because internally we will be very strong.

As a technique of communication silence could be used in daily conversation, during arguments and job interviews. To get a better conversation, one must use brief pauses to give the other person a chance to think, get better understanding of the topic and then react effectively. Just as he needs in return a chance to absorb and process all that information the other person has just said. Another best time to use the power of silence is during an argument. For instance, when someone is shouting at you, looking for an argument you can literally take all the power away from him and save all your energy by simply looking back at them saying absolutely nothing. Yet it is extremely difficult to do but very powerful.

Silence could also be used to show respect in many occasions. It has long been recognized by many religious groups as a key component of an ascetic path to spirituality. For example, we as Muslims we silence when we hear someone reading the Qur’an. We also recommend silence in the funerals. Moreover, silence has become a universal practice used in all over the world. As we used to held one minute of silence as a remembrance of the people died in a natural disaster or an important person died recently.

To sum up we can say that the importance of silence cannot be denied. Be still and know the healing power of silence. (Ideas we should keep in mind) Besides, isn’t it nice to say nothing when you have nothing to say?

“We need to rediscover the power of attention and we do that through silence - the concentration that we use in prayer can be used in everyday life,”

Published in The Daily National Courier, June, 13 2023

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