The Wisdom of Silence: Learning to Talk Less and Say More

“Fearless, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.” ~ Swedish proverb

Silence has a power of its own. It reigns the world of so many people who cannot speak or cannot hear. But silence is a very powerful weapon to wield in everyone’s daily lives. In a world that relies on conversations, I absolutely admire people who can communicate even without speaking. It is a special capacity to have the ability to express without a word, with just your silence. I love those kinds of people with whom you can sit at the table and have dinner without exchanging a single word yet feel understood.

I have been for outings with a lot of people but one experience was worth remembering. We were all at the table, ready to eat our dinner. Some of us were speaking, some of us just concentrated on food and some of us kept quiet. But this one girl, she kept blabbering all along. Ever since I saw her, she kept on talking without any reason whatsoever. At a point, I felt so frustrated with her that I wanted her to shut up. It was all getting so noisy.

She was speaking a lot of things, was talking of so many things all at once but none of it made any sense. Her words were empty. I could not comprehend what her idea was behind revealing those unimportant information, but I sure could understand that it was not only her. We all do it. We have all been there.

It is justified to speak. I am not totally against verbal communication but all I want to know is if silence can be equally expressive or not. People speak due to their wish to be heard. Most of us even speak without prior contemplation and that often leads to more misunderstanding and chaos. Even after this, why do we use speaking as a means to promote understanding?

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” ~ Plato

It is probably the fear associated with silence, which is why we keep avoiding it. We often speak so we don’t have to remain quiet, feeling all stupid and useless. Think, for instance, a date. Suppose it’s your first date and you have prepared a conversation right inside your mind. As planned, once you meet your date, you keep throwing her/him with questions and keep speaking about yourself. All these only because you don’t want to feel ashamed or seem to lack confidence. But how exactly is confidence associated with your ability to talk?

There is none.

Silence is, in fact, a gift. Being able to be silent between words allows us to look into our own soul, let us hear the whispers of our intuition. When we speak too much, the cacophony of the words spoken subdues our inner voice. To be guided by our inner spirits and head towards our objective, we need to pay heed to our inner voices. And when we do that, we experience our personal freedom, dignity, and perfection. Wayne Dyer talks about silence saying,

“It has been said that it’s the space between the bars that holds the tiger. And it’s the silence between the notes that makes the music. It is out of the silence, or “the gap,” or that space between our thoughts, that everything is created-including our own bliss.”