A topic with interesting nuances and curious aspects that can be of great help in everyday life. We invite you to deepen the many aspects of silence and the art of keeping silent.
Last update: 09 March, 2022
They say that silence is the art that feeds wisdom, so sometimes there is no choice but to use it to answer correctly, to avoid unnecessary conversations and actions. Taking a deep breath and keeping quiet at certain times is the best option.
Those who work in the psychotherapeutic field seeand often noticeable progress in the patient who remains silent. It may seem contradictory, as the therapy is based on a powerful exchange through the word. The medium, therefore, is the dialogue that acts as an energy that compares, deepens, awakens and reconstructs.
"Silence is a friend who never betrays"
-Confucius-
However, being silent for a moment and taking a deep breath is often a pivotal moment. It is then that the patient becomes fully aware of his emotions, realizes something that until then he had not perceived.
This is the moment when she is more focused than ever and harmonizes thoughts and emotions; here he puts aside the past to authentically focus on the present moment.
Silence sometimes acts as an awakening of consciousness, and this is exceptional. Not only does it help us to better manage specific conversations or situations, but it is also a channel in which we can get in touch with ourselves to stop for a moment “doing” and simply “being”.
We are therefore faced with a topic with interesting nuances and curious aspects that can be of great help in everyday life. We invite you to deepen the many aspects of silence and the art of keeping silent.
Take a deep breath to counteract the mental noise that surrounds us and devours us
We live in the culture of noise. We are not referring, however, to the sounds of the environment, the persistent noise of traffic, the perpetual hum of factories or the echo of large cities that never sleep.
We are talking about mental noise, that din of conflicting emotions. A mental cacophony that not only makes us stop listening to those in front of us, but often makes us stop listening to ourselves.
We are influenced by a type of communication in which the enthusiastic voice triumphs, the one that shouts and leaves no pauses. We see it in politicians, in many of our business meetings, where those who are silent are immediately labeled as indecisive or lacking in charisma.
The essayist and reporter George Michelsen Foy conducted a study to show that in Western culture the person who is silent before answering is viewed with distrust or suspicion.
Conversations are often assembled through sentences and words that don't pass through an adequate mental or emotional filter. We forget that managing language and words is also an aspect of intelligence, and silence is often an obligatory point of passage.
Let's stop, at least for a moment, to meet. You have to stop to see and feel the other and yourself. There's nothing wrong with taking a deep breath and staying silent during a conversation. Perhaps what we will say after that break is the solution to the problem or the strategy to recover our relationship.
Being silent can be the worst punishment
George Bernard Shaw said that "silence is the most perfect expression of contempt". Therefore, we have to be very careful how we use it, how we apply it depending on the context and the recipients.
We have said that the use of silence is a perfect tool to manage emotions, to focus on the here and now and to be able to issue a more appropriate response or action.
"Those who cannot be silent cannot speak"
-I venture-
Silence is a pause. Keeping quiet is necessary, for example, when returning from work. Taking a deep breath and staying silent for a few seconds can take away the pressure and anxiety of the work environment that we shouldn't be projecting at home.
It would be good to keep in mind that silence can often act as a deterrent to the quality of our personal relationships. Words educate, heal, help build bridges, take root and consolidate bonds through a positive, empathic and close language.
Il silence is not a positive punishment for any child, no conflict is resolved by depriving the other of the word or relegating to solitude.
Such a reaction breeds anger. In these cases, however, communication is essential to change behavior, recognize mistakes and encourage improvement.
Conclusions
We make good use of silence. Let's make it our palace of calm where we find ourselves, we harmonize the emotions, calm the mind and find in it the best answer, the most beautiful word for the moment.
