Let Silence Do the Heavy Lifting

The world is a noisy place. Media personalities are opinionated, chest thumping, and loud. Social media is a place to be seen and heard, and many conversations rarely allow time for contemplation and reflection. 

Cultivating silence and bringing quiet into our lives is a necessary but often overlooked skill. Consider the different ways that we listen to each other. 

Positive listening is listening from a place of “we’re buying into this” or “this is it.” Negative listening is listening from the stance that we’re not buying into this, and this isn’t it. Listening as presence is being receptive to what is being said. We’re not validating or invalidating. We’re receiving the person and their message in a whole way. 

The television icon Fred Rogers, of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” was a master at listening and using silence to do the heavy lifting. He listened to understand another human being rather than to respond to what was being said. This is an important distinction. The way Mr. Rogers listened allowed each person to be present to the other and to the moment that was between them. Not only does this afford a true connection it allows everyone to receive what the other person is offering. Silence, at the very least, allows the other person to say more than they might have said before. 

Silence is a gift that we give to ourselves and to each other. Cultivating a practice of silence and purposeful pauses is a powerful skill that can help us create beautiful and in-tune moments of true revelation.