Studies show that silence relaxes the brain even more than relaxing music and that silence can rejuvenate our brain cells.

Shut up, shut it off, and listen

James Pascual
Farmers Forum

Cheering at a sporting event can be fun. Talking loudly with friends can have its exhilarating moments. But most noise — the clanging and banging, humming of machines and traffic — is just unnecessary, unhelpful or unwanted. Generally speaking, noise is the music of hell. I am not kidding.

We are bombarded with noise and it is killing us. Podcasts, Spotify, video games, television, background music, radio talking heads. Notice how at almost every professional sporting event, the between-play moments are filled with music and announcements. I can’t hear myself think. Why can’t we have a moment of peace and quiet?

Because for some, quiet is the problem. Some people can’t live without noise. Silence must mean they are slacking off. Get busy. Others can go an entire day wearing earbuds or with the television droning on in the background.

Noise assaults us and when it doesn’t, we often choose it to brush silence away. We rush to turn on the music or the cell phone. Others can’t stop their minds from racing like a river. Or we surf the internet and social media and burst our brains as we ingest an avalanche of messages.

Studies show that Canadian adults spend 3.2 hours in leisure screen time each day. That’s a lot of scrolling, youtubing and messaging, turning our heads into dumpsters of fragmented ideas and images. Little wonder our society has reached unprecedented levels of depression and anxiety.

We need to stop.

Said writer Maria Walley: “I’m too tired to face the noise in my own mind, and Google is my drug of choice.” She saw a problem and began her own study of quiet. She ended up writing an article titled, “Why silence is key to health and happiness.”

She found that studies show that silence relaxes the brain even more than relaxing music and that silence can rejuvenate our brain cells. Some of the world’s greatest accomplishments were achieved through silence. Creativity often springs out of silence. Some farmers love to sit quietly in a tractor cab or walk a field at dusk. It is when they come closest to the life of a monk. They touch silence that brings them one step closer to heaven.

Meantime, most people are two steps from hell. Most people cannot even sit quietly in silence for a few minutes without a phone or a screen. We are losing the taste for silence. It is chipping away at our souls.

This is not a new problem. The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal said that “All of the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in a room alone.”

Let’s go back a little further. King Solomon reigned in Israel almost 1,000 years before Christ. The Old Testament says Solomon was the wisest man on earth in those days and what did he ask from God? Wealth and power? No, he asked for wisdom. he said: “Give me Lord, a heart that listens.”

King Solomon knew that he would get wisdom by shutting up and listening for the quiet voice that doesn’t speak in words but in moving the soul with inspiration, ideas, consoling peace.

The antidote to a busy life is not new. Some of the greatest heroes in human history have warned us about the dictatorship of noise and the freedom in silence.

Said Mother Teresa: “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

For many Africans today, Cardinal Robert Sarah is a living saint. He recently said: “Man must make a choice: God or nothing, silence or noise… Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer. The tragedy of our world is never better summed up than in the fury of senseless noise that stubbornly hates silence.”

19th century Danish Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “If I were a physician, and if I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.”

I tried this for myself and found that I am often distracted and I don’t want to set aside time to seek silence and contemplation but am always delighted with the results when I do. I can actually measure an improvement in my ability to make good decisions while basking in a calming peace even when things go sideways. And when I am too busy for silence? Over the course of a few weeks my agitation over even small ball issues is back.

Most people know what I am talking about or knew it at one time. But they got busy. Sometimes we need to be reminded. I know I do.