Tag Archive | Quiescence

Quiet vs. Silence

Jun19

Hello again “Quietude” seekers.

Welcome back!

In this post you will find;

  • Outtakes from and article in the HuffPost
  • Results of an interesting study
  • Some practical application – Do you think they are right?
  • Links/credits at the end

The article from HuffPost states that a World Health Organization report called noise pollution a “modern plague“. The article says that;

  • Silence relieves stress and tension.
  • Silence replenishes our mental resources
  • In silence, we can tap into our imagination
  • Getting quiet can regenerate brain cells

This, put another way, is the same thing as transforming, or renewing your mind, and stated in Romans 12:2 where it says; Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

“Unnecessary noise is the most cruel absence of care that can be inflicted on sick or well.”

Florence Nightingale – Founder of modern nursing.

“Silence first began to appear in scientific research as a control or baseline, against which scientists compare the effects of noise or music. Researchers have mainly studied it by accident, as physician Luciano Bernardi did in a 2006 study of the physiological effects of music. “We didn’t think about the effect of silence,” he says. “That was not meant to be studied specifically.” (See link below to continue reading the study.)

This research began by playing quiet music, then “Bernardi and his colleagues discovered that randomly inserted stretches of silence also had a drastic effect, but in the opposite direction. In fact, two-minute silent pauses proved far more relaxing than either “relaxing” music or a longer silence played before the experiment started.”

” The blank pauses that Bernardi considered irrelevant, in other words, became the most interesting object of study. Silence seemed to be heightened by contrasts, maybe because it gave test subjects a release from careful attention. “Perhaps the arousal is something that concentrates the mind in one direction, so that when there is nothing more arousing, then you have deeper relaxation,” he says. “

I found this fascinating – I hope you did too!

“All unhappiness of men, arises from one simple fact; they cannot sit quietly in their chamber.”

Blaise Pascal – French mathematician,physicist, inventor, write, theologian.

For the final part of this post, I’ve linked a six minute video without music, just nature sights and sounds.

Won’t you take some time, two minutes, four minutes, six?

See if it has an effect on you.

Can you share what you experienced?

Silent Time

Here are the links and credits for what I have used here;

Bible Gateway

HuffPost Article

Two Minute Research

Next time; Toxic Thoughts

Hope to see you then!

All That to Say…

Jun17

The whole point of the last post, “My Genre”, was to begin to give an explanation to the reason why I think having regular times of “Quietude” is important.

Here’s the thing. (I just found out it was a thing…)

I’ve been on this trek for at close to twenty years (give or take) and my INSIDES know why I do it.

When I sat down to explain it to you, I found that I didn’t know how to explain it.

So I’ve spent a couple of days, reading what I Googled, and every other thing that popped into my head.

Everything from renewing the mind to what causes it to need renewal.

What that has done, is bring back to mind many things I learned along the way, validated my thinking, and … Showed me some new advances in study about my “Genre”.

Today’s post will have two points;

  • Reasons we need Quiet
  • A new fact or two

As I state in many of my “Quiet” videos, “The world we live in, will not give us a quiet place to be. We have to find that place for ourselves.”

(You can find these videos on YouTube @Deborah SPC)

The world is constantly clamoring for our attention, wearing us so thin, that our thought processes, our emotions, and even our health, begin to pay a steep price for it.

We pay for it in sleeplessness. We pay for it in our relationships. We pay for it in addiction. We pay for it with our mental health. We pay for it in our bodies. We look for that place, and it does not exist in our sight.

Unless we create it.

Our days are busy, we (I) need time to prepare for whatever is coming my way. If I have prepared, things go much smoother.

According to scripture, even Jesus needed to prepare; to slip away and be quiet; (KJV) Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

And from what I’ve been reading, scientists have found out that silence (instead of simple quiet) can even be better for you in some circumstances.

Silence gives our brains a chance to internalize and evaluate the information that we are receiving daily. In other words, your processors have room to work. They process.

“All profound things and emotions of things are preceded and attended by silence.”

Herman Melville

Silence also relieves stress and tension, and cognitive tasks are performed better after there has been silence.

Without all the sensory input of a noisy space, our minds can actually recover.

There is so much to say and some very interesting studies I’d like to share.

Some of it is “old” news and some of it newer.

Join me next time for a study I’ll share and even an opportunity to practice it and see how it works.

See you then!

Stormy Weather

Jun3

It’s been raining for days.

Rain in April is great. Not so much all through April AND May.

The joke here in the mid-west is some variation of “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes, it will change.”

Or “9:00 AM – Winter, 11:00 AM, – Spring, 1:00 PM – Summer, 3:00 PM – Fall.”

We have often used the furnace and the air conditioning in the same day.

An annoyance to be sure, but relatively harmless.

This constant rain has some long lasting repercussions.

On the the small side – mowing grass is really difficult.

On the larger, more impactful side, the farmers cannot get to their fields. The impact will be far reaching, and most likely the costs of everything will rise.

How does any of this connect with “Quiet” or “Quietude” or “Quiescence”?

The answer is simple. Not easy. But simple.

Weather is among a long list of things that we have absolutely no control over.

If I cannot control it, then what must I do to get through it without bringing myself and those around me down?

I have found that when I take the time for quiet. Five minutes. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. Whatever I can, then my mind can calm down.

When my mind is no longer running amok, then I can think rationally about what steps need to be taken next.

If we leave our minds to their own devices, they can get crazy in a hurry, and it can take a really long time to come back from all that trauma and drama.

So take a moment, or four, with me, and gather your thoughts. Calm your mind.

Be able to be constructively helpful, even when times are tough.

You may even be able to enjoy some flowers in the midst of the storm.