Savor Your Silence: Embrace Solitude

We live in a world teeming with sound. We create sound everywhere, whenever we can, as if our lives depend on it. At this point in life, sound is something we cannot live without, something we would protect with our lives, and even something we would never let go. Sound is such a generic word, though, so let us focus on a more delicate, fragile sound that a lot of us dismiss too easily: silence.

What is silence? When was the last time you were calmed or bothered by silence? And, when you were, what did you do? Did you embrace silence? Or did you pollute it with your sound within the first few seconds it came into your life?

All of us accept one type of silence for sure: the silence that seeps in when we are taking a test. We use that silence to focus on our work in order to show that we have actually learned the class material.

However, most tend to fear awkward silences. We would rather spend hours talking with a friend we are comfortable around than awkwardly walk alone at school in silence. We fear being alone and being absorbed in the silence. Social pressure always gets in the way.

But why do we feel this way? There is nothing wrong with relishing your own silence. There is nothing wrong with creating your own world filled with only your own internal sound. It is fine to spend a few minutes being yourself, alone. During that precious time, you can reflect on life. You can become more familiar with your identity. You can spot some details in your surroundings that you never even noticed before. You can even recuperate from your emotional distress. So why are we so afraid to be silent?

The world we live in today has become so polarized that we immediately default into pairing anything, if not everything, with its opposite. Light and dark. Good and bad. Introverted and extroverted. If you are silent and you tend to avoid the spotlight, you are immediately an introvert. If you outgoing and always the center of attention, you are an extrovert.

We have to stop categorizing people. We need to learn, if not accept, that silence is valuable, and it is not a defining characteristic of an introvert. We need to understand that extroverts need silence too. Silence will always be a part of our lives. Once we learn to accept silence, the world we see will transform.

That guy you always thought was an outcast—he is not an introvert. He is merely appreciating his own silence. He is spending more time thinking about matters that are important to him, whether they are music, sports, or even his life, than you are. He is not worrying about awkward silences. He has become absorbed in his own silence, his own self, and his own world.

That girl who is always in her room doing who knows what—she is not an introvert. She is spending time with herself, relieving her stress, and watching nature change outside her window. She is up to date in her own world. She knows herself, because she is having some time to herself. She isn’t always adjusting yourself to your friends and society.

Now, shall we close the paper and take some time to appreciate silence?

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