Sit in Silence
What do you do when you are driving a long distance, alone?
I typically get excited knowing the drive will be bearable because I have a lineup of podcasts, plenty of music, and usually a hands-free phone call to my sister Chris or my best friend, Nancy.
Last week, I had a long drive, and I was skipping through podcasts, but nothing held my attention. So I switched to my playlist, and again, nothing seemed to move me.
Suddenly, a thought came to me Sit in Silence.
What? While driving, I never sit in silence.
Now let’s be clear, I didn’t hear voices or anything magical or mystical; it was merely my thought (we can debate later if it was divine).
Strength Finders 2.0 identifies one of my five strengths as “woo”, so sitting in silence is very uncomfortable for me. My comfort zone is doing, listening, learning, singing, moving—it is not Sitting in Silence.
But, I did make a soft commitment on January 1, 2021, to take time each week to meditate and be quiet.
I have thought about attending a Silent Retreat, but my heart begins to pound, and my hands sweat.
To be clear, I haven’t progressed much with my goal of quiet time.
The thought reappeared, so I turned off the music and drove down the road in silence.
It wasn’t easy. I could actually feel the discomfort in my body.
My mind gave me loads of things I could be doing that didn’t include silence. So I redirected my brain, and I sat in silence—for two hours.
And, it only took about fifteen very long minutes until clean and creative thoughts began to flow.
I have an upcoming deadline for an article that will be printed in a July issue of a magazine—I began to write the article in my head.
Lately, I have given much thought to a talk I want to share with you on purpose and calling for women at a crossroad; important points were unveiled during my silence that I hadn’t considered.
I also had random thoughts from different times in my life, a few of which made me chuckle.
Wow, who knew sitting in silence could reveal so much?
When was the last time you had a thought that guided you in a direction you didn’t want to go?
Did you choose the path that was comfortable or the path of least resistance?
It may sound silly to those of you who regularly sit in silence, but for me, it was painful at first and then mind-blowing.
Questions I asked myself while waiting for the brain to kick in during that 15-minute lull in brain activity:
Why do I resist silence?
What am I afraid to learn?
What is wrong with not being busy all the time?
What if new thoughts are revealed that I don’t want to deal with?
What I learned:
I can sit in discomfort and process new and different thoughts.
There is freedom in clearing out the brain from overload and too much stimulation.
Silence is golden (an unknown author in the 9th century wrote in a proverb, “Speech is Silver and Silence is Golden)
So what might you learn by sitting in silence?
I am here to serve you as you go through your life journey as you process the confusing thoughts that might be revealed.
Visit my website at www.nancybeardcoachingllc.com, and book a free appointment to discover if life coaching is what you need to move toward living the life you desire.
I have a work road trip this week that will take 5.5 hours to my destination, and then the return trip—I will push myself to sit in silence once again.
Have a beautiful week filled with moments of silence.
Joyfully, Nancy
