Tag Archive | thought life

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!

My Genre

Jun14

Today I did something I’ve never thought to do before.

I Googled my “Genre”.

I wasn’t really quite sure I “Had” a genre to tell the truth.

My passion is to lead people into seeing the value of what I call “Quietude”.

As an introvert, what this means to me is to be able to have a place to recharge my internal batteries after dealing with, as Susan Cain says; “A world that can’t stop talking”.

If you’ve been here a while, you’ve no doubt seen the little “Quiet” videos made out of the photos I take.

Little vignettes, if you will, designed to calm down the insides, help regain strength, and be ready to do it all again.

I found out so much more today! Here is what I’ll share with you for this post, and then I’ll continue with more later;

  • Where This Idea Began
  • New Information
  • Truth or Lies?
  • Slow Start
  • Onward Toward Healing

It really began way at the beginning of what I call the cave days. I was reading scripture that I had always read. Then, as it happens, some words jumped off the page, followed by a question –

ESV 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

TLB Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.

How can I possibly do this? How could I possibly change the way I’ve thought all of m life?

Now I believe in the word of God pretty literally, so that means that if He is asking me to do something, then there must be a way to do it, right?

So I just “happened” to see an episode of something, 700 Club maybe? TBN? The episode I watched had Dr. Caroline Leaf on as a guest. Her teaching was all about re-wiring your brain, re-training it, Transforming it. This is my own simple way of putting it.

You can follow the link for the language that she uses. It involves things like neurons, synapses, and neurotransmitters. So if you’re into that, here’s your link; https://drleaf.com/about/

I had a strong feeling that by being stiller, or quieter, or silent, that I would be able to put some of this Bible idea into my real life.

I have to remind myself these days, that THOSE DAYS, were not at all easy. It was a real struggle for me to actually DO what she was saying.

But I believed Dr. Caroline’s research, and I most certainly believed that if it were not possible, that God would never require it of me.

Enter that tenacity – read hard headed-ness – that I was born with, and one more very important question; Does God tell the truth, or is He a liar?

Well I don’t believe He can lie, so I held on to that.

I started out small. Really small. Two minutes. Ten minutes. Thirty minutes was an extra successful time slot!

I sat with my journal and my Bible on my lap. Coffee by my side. And the goal of renewing my mind to the way that God had planned it from the beginning.

During that time, I believe God allowed me to work through some pretty tragic, destructive things that had been in my life ever since I could remember. Cycles that kept on returning, began to slow down, and melt away. Healing began to come to my mind, and forgiveness to my heart.

Nowadays, in the back ground, there will either be quiet ambient music or nothing at all, and healing is STILL happening.

So now you know where this journey I am on began.

Next time I’ll delve a little deeper into this process, and even some NEW things that I’m learning.

Please join me if you just want to detect a way out of your cave. This world (thinks it) has us trapped, but our minds can be renewed!

See you next time!