Finding silence in an age of noise

We live in an age of noise where silence has become a luxury.
- Erling Kagge, Norwegian explorer

One of the most valuable things we can do, as we work to support young people, is to introduce silence into their lives.

It’s a noisy world. Minds are over-loaded with information, ears are bombarded with sound. Nothing stops. News feeds have infinite scroll. The next video auto-plays, music is on loop and group chats ‘ping’ all day long.

Silence has become so difficult to find. Yet we cannot flourish without it.

I’ve been thinking about why silence is so vital to our health and growth. What is interesting is that the argument for silence can be made from both a scientific and theological point of view.

Science and silence

Researchers have found that silence relaxes our body by reducing heart rate and blood pressure (2006 study). Silence also stimulates brain cell growth in the area of our brains linked to learning and recall (2015 study). And it’s even been found that silence boosts oxytocin levels, which is typically linked to warm, fuzzy feelings and shown to lower stress and anxiety (2021 study).

Faith and silence

From a Christian perspective, silence is the companion to prayer, meditation and growth. Without silence, we cannot know ourselves and we cannot begin to know God. Silence is where the soul finds peace, perspective and inner joy.

In the life of Jesus, he habitually stepped away from the crowd and activity into places of silence and solitude – the wilderness, the mountains, the garden. These were times of silent, hidden prayer. They were pauses before public activity. They were often periods of preparation.

Let’s bring these two perspectives together:

Without silence, our minds are in danger of becoming overwhelmed, our bodies, of becoming tense and our souls, of becoming shallow.

The fear of the vacuum

Silence, though vital for development, can be intimidating – especially for young people who have not cultivated the habit of quietness.

In the silence, left alone with our thoughts, we must confront reality, which is often painful. Pain, regrets, sorrow are waiting there in the vacuum.

Yet, young people need encouragement to embrace silence and wrestle with their thoughts. For the sake of their own wellbeing and growth, young people need to retreat from the noise. And we need to help them make this a habit.

How to introduce silence

A simple place to start is to encourage moments of silence in our conversations. This is something personal coaches do all the time. They know that silence is the one thing that people need to process their own situation and think about their future.

As we work with young people, we serve them by asking searching questions like ‘why?’ and ‘how? and ‘what else?’ and then shutting up and encouraging them to reflect in silence. We can aid this further by creating quiet environments when we mentor (e.g. turn the phone off, close the window, dim the lights).

Encourage special times of silence

Another idea is to encourage young people to plan a quiet time first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Or else talk about how you find silence in your own life. Our example is usually more powerful than anything we say.

Creative Idea: get young people to imagine and illustrate a no sound and screens night along the lines of this one by journalist and cartoonist Malaka Gharib:

In my last post, I highlighted the need for us to encourage young people away from screens into community. As we do this, we also need to invite them into times of silence. For the sake of our body, mind and soul, we need to seek both relationship and solitude.

Until next time,

Stephen

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