Joanne Rowling, Carl Jung, Ray Dalio (American billionaire, founder of the investment company Bridgewater Associates), as well as California Governor Jerry Brown, Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan - what unites these people? It's hard to believe, but many of them consider periods of silence they practice as a huge factor in their success.
And today I invite you to join me in my study of benefits of Silence. In Part 1 of this series Listening to the silence Part 1: Why is it important to take time for yourself? I talked about the importance of silence for us. In Part 2 I want to concentrate more on scientific experiments which proved its benefits as well as the simple but effective ways how we can use it in our daily life. Who knows, maybe among us there are those who later will join the list of successful people using silence as a way to achieve success.
The advice to beginning writers
Writer and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates in one of his recent interviews gave very interesting advice to beginning writers - not to use Twitter. And all because he sees the future of journalism in covering really important things, rather than chasing a fleeting success, distracted by a virtually useless world of brief, and sometimes meaningless, messages. He thinks that you can achieve something great only if you are going to a deeper level (that is hard to do if you always think what message to post on Twitter) and therefore silence should be your guide. The interesting advice in my opinion. And I very much hope that Steemit will be one of the social platforms that will embody the idea of meaningful messages and therefore will use the simple methods how to make silence your ally described in this article.Silence is a way to escape from "noise pollution".
Let's figure it out. Since birth, most of us (with some exceptions) have the ability to hear. This mechanism is in our DNA and is an indispensable attribute of Homo sapiens or, more simply, a person. In the past, the ability to hear noises was one of the key factors for survival of a human.
Now the time has changed. Therefore our auditory perception needed to adapt to new realities. As the mechanism it used was very simple. I think almost every one of us observed such a picture: a big metropolis, lots of people flutter in different directions. The small detail - almost all of them wear headphones in a desire to shut off from the noises, the crowd and triple at least a little bit of personal space and peace.
As a result, we create things which can help us to decrease the amount of noise we live in - soundproof windows, headphones that extinguish unnecessary sounds, as well as the development of a whole chain of services - retreats, techniques of silence, meditation and recreational centers. Some use “the old school” simply get out the o countryside for a weekend.
What is it that pulls us there and why do so many of us seek a place where they can finally stay in peace?
It turns out that everything is simple enough. Silence is an equally important component of our healthy functioning, alongside healthy sleep and proper nutrition.
To get this idea right, I want us to look on the positive effects that the silence gives. At the same time knowing the peculiarity of our consciousness to reject simple truths, I want to give examples of scientific experiments to confirm them.
Positive Effect 1 - On the other side of thoughts or how silence allows us to solve problems
Have you ever come across the fact that you have a problem that you need to solve and you are spending hours and hours in search of its solution, but even the ghost of the answer does not appear in any way? Do you know what Google does in such cases? Sends its employees to meditate or relax. Why? Because these guys have long used the creed "Rest, to develop creativity."
Or another example: the solution to a question on which you spent a lot of hours in effortful thought "suddenly" falls on you at a time when you do not think about it at all? Does it sound familiar?
As scientists have shown, there is nothing surprising in this. It's all about the characteristics of the neurons of our brain. In 2000, scientists led by American professor Marcus E. Raichle introduced a new phenomenon - default mode of brain function. The essence of this discovery is incredibly simple - when you relax, certain parts of your brain starts connecting to the different part of the brain that usually is not used and therefore it is working to solve the problem.
The other research group from the University of York and the University of California, Santa Barbara have found that over 40% of our creative ideas come when we give ourselves a break.
To make it even more simple I would use the worlds of the American composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. I think there is no way you can explain it better (see below).
”A good idea doesn’t come when you’re doing a million things. The good idea comes in the moment of rest. It comes in the shower. It comes when you’re doodling or playing trains with your son. It’s when your mind is on the other side of things.”
Lin Manuel Miranda, the American composer, creator of the blockbuster musical Hamilton.
Positive Effect 2 - Silence allows you to reduce and stabilize the emotional state of stress
Lack of sleep and appetite, inability to "turn off the operating mode", hearing loss, high blood pressure, depression, apathy to life, and various diseases (most often among which distinguish heart and vascular disease) are companions to 8 out of 10 modern inhabitants of big cities. Not a very pleasant fact, right? Scientists believe one of the facts is a noise pollution.
The connection between noise and diseases
Scientists started to study and connect noise and various diseases back in the middle of the XIX century. British nurse Florence Nightingale wrote that noise can cause anxiety, stress and even sleep problems in patients. In the middle of the 20th-century doctors, S. Rosen and P. Olin created a new concept called ”noise pollution". The experiments proved that the noise from motorways or airports increases pressure. A little later, it was also proved that it causes loss of sleep, ringing in the ears and heart disease.The good news is that it can be reverted.. It will be enough to just include in your schedule periods of silence. For those who are always in a hurry and who certainly do not have time for this - a small bonus - you will need only about 2 minutes, and several intervals in a day.
All thanks to the "accidental" discovery of the Italian cardiologist Luciano Bernardi made back in 2006. Exploring the mechanism of interaction of music with a human, he interlaced the intervals of the sound of the composition with silence. And to everyone's surprise, it turned out that 2 minutes of silence were more relaxing than even listening to "relaxing" music, and also beneficially affected the state of the heart system.
Effect 3 - Silence contributes to the renewal of brain cells and is a possible solution to depression.
Interesting results were led by the study of another scientist. In 2013, Imke Kirste of the Duke University School of Medicine discovered a curious connection between the time of silence and the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for learning, emotions and long-term memory.
The data were obtained when she tested mice for tolerance to noises. And again as in the case with Dr. Bernardi, the discovery was made by accident. Scientists noticed that adults mice who spent at least 2 hours in silence within 3 days were detected to have growth of new brain cells.
And while the relationship between silence and neurogenesis has not been proven in humans, the scientist is sure that this discovery can be a new way of treating such diseases as depression and dementia (this is a syndrome in which memory, thinking, behavior, and the ability to perform daily actions degenerate) and predicts creation of new "silent methods of therapy." in the near future.
To read is good, but to USE is even better.
If you know me in person, you know that I like to state something that can be used immediately. So in this article I decided to give you some possible options how you can use the benefits of silence in your daily life starting from today.
Here they are:
- Find yourself a safe place in which you will not be distracted or go to the street, in a cafe, before making important decisions or a meeting, or in trying to solve the problem you face
- Put yourself on a “media diet”. Take the habit of turning off electronic equipment such as computers, laptops, cells, etc at least for several hours a day. You can also choose to arrange a day of "silence", excluding from your activities the following: viewing news, social networks and aimless “surfing” on the Web.
- Accustom yourself to short breaks in your activity, being distracted from the fulfillment of current tasks. To do this, you can use the well-known technique called The Pomodoro Technique by installing the free application BeFocused or similar.
*Arrange yourself a “silence hour”. During the day allocate yourself some time (not necessarily one, even if it will be 10 or 20 mins) when you can stay in silence - do what you like. You can meditate, do yoga or whatever brings you happiness and relaxation. - Make a habit to disconnect from all means of communication for 1 or 2 hours before going to sleep. Do things that do not require active social interaction - go walking, read a book, speaks to a someone you trust. Be creative.
- Create other habits which you think might be good for you.
What would I like to say at the end?
The health of each of us is in our hands. Scientists can prove a lot and give various reasons for what is worth and is not worth doing. BUT, it is you who are responsible for including or not including in your life that which is useful. And so, as always at the end of the question from me:
I would really like to see people who would find harmony with themselves and I really hope this article is to your benefits.
Image Source
If you have any comments on this I would be happy to hear!
Stay healthy and happy,
@Sasha Genji
This article is written in the framework of my support to the @ecotrain project, which also uses #ecotrain I want to believe that more and more people will start to think about things that help to make the world a better place. (с)@ecotrain. I also hope that more and more writers on Steemit will support the movement started by @eco-alex and @icmultitudes. As I truly believe that we are one and helping others means you are helping yourself.
Click here to read more post from the passengers on the EcoTrain
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