On a global level, we have become addicted to constant noise and chatter. We walk through forests and trails with our headphones on, we listen to audiobooks and podcasts on our daily commute to work. If you work for a company, then you’re probably listening to 24/7 broadcasted top 40 music feeds on a loop. We’ve even invented the term “background noise.” It is as if quiet has become something alien or abnormal to us.
A little while back, I took a hike through an area called the Hansville Greenway in Western Washington State. There’s a part of the trail called “The Quiet Place” and it’s an understatement. Along the trailer was a simple but dilapidated wooden bench.
I sat quietly and I listened deeply with focused intent. With such intent, I couldn’t even hear my own tinnitus ringing in my ears. There wasn’t a bird chirping or the customary wrestling of leaves from small animals like chipmunks and squirrels scurrying through to dry brush. There was absolutely no sound. No traffic noises, not even sounds from the nearby sea.
Part of me found it disconcerting and almost unnatural but in reality it was literally the most natural thing in this world — QUIET. A stillness so deep that it almost became frightening. I’ve experienced this type of absolute quiet before deep in the deserts of Eastern Washington and in Arizona. The only noise I could hear was the noise that I was making by my natural movement.
Upon reflection, it’s like that scene in the movie that we’ve all seen. Somebody’s walking through the forest and they notice that the forest has become absolutely still and quiet. The protagonist of the story becomes alarmed by the sudden stillness. Their mental faculties start creating bizarre scenarios of danger and trepidation. If you have kids and you don’t hear any noise you immediately start thinking that there is something wrong.
We have become accustomed to being bombarded by constant noise, chatter, and the constant hum of machinery.
Two things happen when we were confronted by absolute stillness. The first thing that happens is that our imagination replaces the noise and the chatter. The second thing that happens is that our mind tries to interpret the silence as something being wrong. We strain to hear through the silence for some sign of noise. If we’re at home then we go and investigate. If we are in nature we become disquieted in mind.
But what if we sought silence and stillness on purpose. As the Zen Buddhist Masters would say, ” to allow the mind to become an empty vessel.” To allow our minds simply to rest in openness and in no-thingness. That terrifies some people.
At that point, seasoned meditators would tell you that profound changes start to happen in one’s mind and in one’s nervous system. It is a form of psychological subtraction. But what is being subtracted you might ask? What is being subtracted is the: The pointless chatter, toxic self negativity, psychological clutter and junk, and the phantasmagorical machinations of a fruit of imagination.
The Japanese have a term called Shinrin-yoku which translates as forest bathing. It is allowing oneself to bathe one’s mind in nature. And it is seen by many Japanese people as a fundamental practice for one’s mental health. We have become horribly disconnected from silence and stillness to the point that we think it is abnormal.
As a society we have been brow beaten into blindly following the corporate productivity model. We’ve all experienced the meeting that could have been an email, The pointless mandatory work videos telling us what we already should know as a functional adult. The self-important voicemails and pointless diatribes from the overly self-important co-worker or manager.
But ask yourself, if your house was littered with a bunch of useless clutter and rubbish would you allow it to sit there or would you remove it for permanent disposal? Your mind is your home from your first breath till your last breath. No one has a responsibility besides yourself to declutter your home. It is no one else’s responsibility or task.
I won’t go into the various methods to declutter one’s mind because there is no shortage of written and recorded material on this subject. One only has to be interested in doing it. One person I know of takes an early walk in the morning at dawn to the seashore and quietly watches the sea. Some people I’ve known will practice a formal type of sitting meditation. I personally try to make it a practice to bathe my mind in the pre-dawn stillness for about a half an hour listening deeply.
But however one chooses to declutter their mind and subconscious is up to the individual. Most individuals choose not to declutter their minds. They prefer to drown in their own imagination, some dark nostalgia, they’ve allowed their minds to become their own private purgatory.
Many mistake this self-imposed purgatory as their core identity.
There are some people, and I was one of those people who replayed their traumas in their mind as a form of self-flagellation. I have to admit that I was one of those people for a long time. But what I’ve learned along the way was that it was an unconscious choice. It took me decades of learning through self-reflection to choose not to involuntarily punish myself anymore. I had to learn the hard lesson that what has happened to me is not happening now. It’s like a reflection in a mirror. It has no real substance. You can see it in your mind’s eye but you can’t touch it.
Many people allow their self-conscious chatter to dictate their moods, their well-being, and their psychological space. We’ve all done it but the difference is some of us actually learn to see the patterns and to trespass the psychological specters and ghosts from our subconscious environment.
In closing, find what works for you best and make it a proactive habit. Ask yourself whether this mental habit is either nourishing or toxic. Ask yourself if this mental habit leads you to a good place or a bad place psychologically. Whatever you decide, get in the habit of watching your mind, and your subconscious as if you are the editor of your own unique life story. What changes would you make, what paragraphs would you delete, would you add more useless filler or you subtract more of the banter. Those questions can only be answered by oneself.
Every journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
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