How Silence Affects Your Body, Soul, and Spirit
When I think of silence, the first thing that pops into my mind is the Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. The line that most impacted me in my childhood was Silence like a cancer grows… Our society apparently took the warning very seriously because now silence is disappearing altogether. I remember once reading that thirty seconds of silence can really make a classroom uncomfortable. I tested that theory frequently and found that my students could generally withstand twenty seconds before someone raised their hand to dispel the awkwardness.
As for myself, I filled my solitude with music. That the music was usually worship or at least spiritual didn’t matter. With music, my solitude often soothed me, but it lacked power. I did not really discover silence until I began to work from home. My youngest
leaving for college helped too. But as I look at the past fifty-one years of my life, my avoidance of silence rings clear and loud.
Now, after a year of being forced to live in relative silence in order to write, I crave it. I have discovered whole new vistas of imagination and untamed areas of my heart. I learned early on in my spiritual walk that if I wanted to hear God, I needed to be silent. But the hour after hour, day after day, of living in quiet has quick-started a process of internal growth. My powers of concentration are stretching out longer and longer. The fight to distract myself with noise has diminished to a mere hum, but only after a year.
But three main effects have really impressed me in this time of silence. I did not expect them, nor was I really looking for them. I am really grateful, however, that the fruit of this time is ripening. Over one hundred blog posts and one revision of my novel later, I owe my newfound creativity to silence. But the spiritual benefits are both more painful and healing than I realized when I began to turn off Netflix, the Pandora, and Spotify. Even the silent voice of social media has needed to be specifically avoided for me to grow. So here they are, in no particular order.
1: In silence, the heart can truly pray.
One desert father of the ancient church instructed his listeners by telling them that in prayer, we bring our minds down into our hearts and sit at the throne of God. My mind works overtime. But the heart sings a much quieter tune than our minds. The coursing river of our heart moves at a slower and deeper pace than our minds but make no mistake. Your heart often determines the direction of your mind, rather than the other way around. It is out of the heart that a man speaks, not his mind, says Scripture.
In the silence, I discovered a constant, anxious urgency in the powerful currents of my heart. I could only rest if the items on my list were crossed off. I awoke to create more lists in the name of being productive. Silence highlighted my unnecessary stress. Silence helped me chain the dogs of hurry and rush that have nipped at my heels my entire adulthood. How could I even approach this victory of prayer if I didn’t stop and recognize the issue?
2: Living in a quiet place increases the sense of the presence of God.
I have consumed so many books about hearing God. Some hear him in words in their spirit; others get impressions. Still, others feel as if pieces of the Bible are highlighted just for them. And I have experienced God in all of those ways. But in the quiet, my first expectation was that I would somehow hear Him more. And I do but in a new way. I still hear things or feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit. Now, however, a companionship has taken the place of the straining to hear God’s whisper. Once I let go of the urgency, compounded by my rushed devotionals, prayer became no longer about doing but being.
Being in the presence of God now means just that. I am in His presence and He moves me as He wills, even as I go about the business of my day with its laundry and muddy floors. We are told to pray without ceasing, but nowadays we treat that as hyperbole. That must be an exaggeration of the spiritual kind by an over-eager Paul. I still feel as though I skim the surface of that kind of constant prayer, but now I see that prayer as communion does not have to be turned off the way we turn off the oven when the roast is done. My heart does not turn off and so my communion with God doesn’t have to be either.
3: Noise sensitivity increases.
I don’t mean that I am like the cranky old man who is always telling the pastor to turn down the music. I sat watching a news 
program recently and found myself turning down the volume until I just turned it off. The disrespect with which the two combatants treated each other has become intolerable to me. Choose whichever program, whichever political leaning, and you will find loaded question after loaded question aimed at each other like bullets.
A time and a place exist for debate, and in my classroom, I try to stimulate raucous argumentation. But I always have the caveat that everyone gets to finish their thought. But every night in my living room, giant heads berating each other is agonizing. It interferes with my sense of God’s presence. I am a sucker for reality television contests like The Voice. At least there, people are fighting for their dreams. But the manipulative canned laughter on sitcoms and the constant sound of gunfire that emanates from the television wears me out.
4: Silence recharges the brain, physically and mentally.
Scientists now tell us that silence helps brain cells regenerate. If we allow the presence of silence, we actually help the brain to heal itself. This leads to memory restoration, creativity, reading comprehension, and demonstrably lower stress. And we all know that stress is linked to so many diseases. Silence is a great healer. I am just coming out of a season of noise. Christmas with its music and socializing is a lot of fun. But after a semester of teaching, a conference, and a couple of car accidents, I am having a hard time concentrating. I’m tired and a little sad.
But stretching out before me are two weeks of time off. My dutiful and hardworking husband will be toiling at his office. My only company will be my cats, who don’t have much to say. How my brain needs this rest. I want to look at the mountains, blanked in snow and quiet. I am tired in part because I fell gradually into the habit of noise. Music and phone conversations, youtube sermons and movies, all good things in measure began to converge until I forgot how to be still and quiet. My cell phone is a distraction. I recently won a tournament in Wordscapes, a way to distract my brain from what it really needs- serenity and escape from the sounds and sights found on my little portable screen.
I have used the excuse of raising six kids for why my forays into quiet were so seldom. And some truth exists there. But I knew that silence waited for me, has always waited for me. I think we fear silence the way we fear death. We do not know what we will find there. I remember reading one of my poems on the radio in Kentucky. My first time in a sound booth and my mind was blown. I have never heard my own thoughts so clearly.
Only later did I think to question me. How am I to take my thoughts captive if I can’t hear myself think? The sounds of this busy world muddy everything. We walk into a store and music we would never listen to alone because of the content drowns our thoughts. Even the grocery stores and coffee shops pipe suggestive lyrics or pounding rhythms into our thought streams. The world was much quieter when the desert fathers fled to the desert. Imagine what they might say to us if they were to walk down the storefronts of the local mall today.
In rest and repentance is your salvation, but you would have none of it the Lord says in Isaiah. It took Father Anthony over two decades in the desert to face his inner turmoil. That is a lot of rest and repentance. If we do not find our deserts somewhere in the overgrown jungles of our lives, we cannot hope to find that salvation which requires a working out in fear and trembling. To invite silence is to bravely face the inner self, the one that will come face to face with the Father. To live in quiet is to become one with oneself and with the Father, just as Jesus prayed. In fact, the quiet can save our sanity, our health, and our lives.
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22 Comments
Melissa
I have always been comfortable in silence. I remember being content to play in my room by myself when I was little with no background noise. Or as a college student spending a whole day studying without music or tv. Now as a therapist, talking to people all day long, I crave times of silence. I love the quiet early mornings when no one else in the house is yet awake and I have time with God and to read the bible.
Heather Hart
I can so relate to This! For a few years I had forgotten what silence was, and then my twins started preschool. We had moved to a new town in the middle of the year, and even though they hadn’t been able to get into a preschool in our old district and I had been homeschooling them, the new school let them in. I dripped them off that first day and came home to a quiet home and just sat. There was so much I could have “done” but I just wanted to embrace the quiet. And it didn’t last forever, the preschool program only lasted 2 hours, but it was enough. That was six years ago and now I am where you are, I am used to quiet. I still have my loud, fu family in the evenings, but my days are filled with quiet and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Unmasking the Mess
I enjoy moments of quiet like being out in the woods or sitting next to a fire, but I also crave the songs of my family! Sounds like you’ve learned a lot about yourself and God during your periods of extended silence!
Susan Evans (@SusanCEvans)
“I think we fear silence the way we fear death. We do not know what we will find there.” God keeps calling me into His presence. But in the silence I experience unresolved horror and anguish. Yes, I experience God’s presence and walk by His Spirit. But I can’t bear large amounts of time in silence because my heart has unresolved horror. I have been commanded by God to wait and be calm. I’m so exhausted… Will you pray for me, that God will bring about resolution to the horror and anguish of my soul?
1blogify2
Yes, my friend. I will pray for you that God will free you utterly from any horror or anguish that lingers where it ought not.
cultivatemyheart
Susan, I’ll be praying for you too.
Dominika
Can I also add that a quiet attracts peace but a loud spirit attracts confusion. I found this post educating and encouraging. Amazing!
http://dominikagoodness.blogspot.com.ng
sarahbraden
This is a great article. It is so hard to be still and quiet in our ever-changing, fast-paced world, but it is where we can truly hear the voice of God the best.
Maryann Lorts
I really enjoy this post. I have many of the same thoughts on silence and the need for quiet. Thank you.
couchcrumbsllc
Being an introvert, I actually prefer silence. But growing up with four other siblings, it was often difficult to attain. Now that there is more silence in my life, I do feel like I am closer to God… I even crave the quiet just so that I can be with Him and to understand what my heart is saying versus my mind. I only hope that others desire the silence as well because it can truly be healing!
cultivatemyheart
“How am I to take my thoughts captive if I can’t hear myself think?” I love this. I’ve been noticing the noise of this world more and more. We were out recently, having dinner with friend and it hit me how hard it is to even have a conversation in a restaurant. All the people and then music on top of that. I don’t want my home to be like that.
My youngest graduated in May and is off to college. My oldest is a college student here and will be getting an apartment soon. Since I’m working full-time from home now, I’ll be experiencing silence in a new way. Your post makes me look forward to it.
Alice
I am only a couple months into being an empty-nester. I love it so much I feel a little guilty. The only downside is trying to round everyone up at holidays.
Sasha
This was an interesting read as I was also reading a chapter on noise in The Phantom Tollbooth today! How ironic that he states that people crave loud noises and dischord. It is true and your post helped solidify this idea in my mind. I crave a little peace and quiet (but I am sensitive to noise).
Kristi
Much can be gained when we remain silent and learn to enjoy it. I believe it helps us to hear what is truly important instead of the overbearing noise that seems constant everywhere we go.
Brewing Wisdom
This is what I needed! Wow, so many times people question why I enjoy my time silent and alone with the Lord. Yes, it’s in these times my minds starts to race but it’s also the times I realize what is heavy on my heart and thats where I find myself in a deep prayer with my savior to overcome these battles. Now granted, I’ve had times where I just found glory in the nature around me and the sounds that only nature can bring and I just worshipped my Savior. We live in a world filled with noise and distractions and I think this silence time is a must in todays world to keep ourselves connected with Christ.“How am I to take my thoughts captive if I can’t hear myself think?” Yes! =)
Katie Braswell
I absolutely love this! It ties right in to my New Year perspective! I especially love this phrase… “But the heart sings a much quieter tune than our minds.” This is so very true. My mind runs and runs and runs. It sings a lot of busy songs, and it’s so important for me to remember to silence myself. Not necessarily my voice, but to quiet my mind so I can hear my heart, hear the Spirit, feel my Savior! <3 Thank you for sharing, Alice! I always enjoy reading your heart!
Donna Miller
I have not always been comfortable in the silence. Ever since receiving Jesus into my heart, He has calmed the storm within me and silence has become the secret place where He and I meet! Thank you for this beautiful post!
Erendira Ramirez-Ortega
I found that quiet time requires discipline. The habit of spending time with God in prayer is meant to bring about a change in us. We don’t pray to change the mind of God, nor do we read our Bible to learn tips and tricks to help us live better, but rather we do it out of submission to Him. Our silence helps us realize that we need God every day. Silence is so necessary for the Christian and I’m glad you’re practicing this in earnest!
Amber Pommier-Johnson
Silence is elusive in a house with three active young boys, a scrappy puppy, and a husband always on the go. But this is a great reminder to steal away for even a few minutes of quiet time where God can speak clearly to me and I can grow closer to Him. Great reminder!
Hallie Liening
I love this! Silence is hard to come by, but oh, how precious it is to me. We need more of it I think.
Nina Daugherty
I loved all of this! Such great perspective and truth to really bask in..thanks for sharing!
adaughtersgiftoflove
Great post and comments. I believe also that silence, pursuing Him the quiet lead to opening the gift of His peace.