• +1-805-242-3180
  • info@cccsl.org

The Gift of Silence

The Gift of Silence

Sharing is caring!

By Rev. Elizabeth Rowley, Spiritual Director
December 28, 2018

Studies have shown that meditation eases chronic pain, anxiety, and stress, improves heart health, boosts mood and immunity, and balances the body’s systems. If you find yourself feeling frazzled from the flurry of holiday activities now coming to a close, give yourself the gift of meditation before the New Year. When you reach the silence in meditation, which is just beyond the flurry of all the mental activity, you will discover an inner realm of peace, beauty, creativity, and unconditional love.

When I first discovered silence in meditation, I felt like I had discovered a secret, and this filled me with great joy. It was the discovery of a mystical presence, invisible to all, in and through all things, and its nature was love. My newly found secret caused me to radiate and glow.

At first, I was not inclined to meditate for very long as it was challenging to sit still. I struggled with the many thoughts swimming around in my mind: to do lists being formed, thoughts about my day, and whatever else caught my attention. I soon realized this was the natural response to the busyness of a life well lived.

When we sit down to still the mind, we are like those little snow globes which are seen more prominently during the holiday season. When shaken, the snow particles float around, occupying the space within the globe. When you set the globe down and let it be, the snow particles gently settle, and the globe returns to its natural state.

This is what happens when you sit down to meditate in silence. Thoughts, feelings, to do lists, and everything else running through your mind floats around, taking up space like those little snow particles in the snow globe. Given a short time, the mind will settle, and return to its natural state.

You’ll know when it begins to settle as your thoughts become fewer and farther between. As the space expands between thoughts, your mind will begin to rest, and your body will become still. Next, you will enter what is called hypnagogia, which is the state between wakefulness and sleep. This is where creative brilliance, new ideas, and inventions are born.

Thomas Edison was known to sit down for several “naps” each day to enter the hypnagogic state. I believe he was sitting down to meditate. He always had a notepad
within reach, to write down ideas that came to him as he entered this state.

I started my meditation practice with 5 minutes every morning. I fell in love with the sweet peacefulness of silence and increased the time I spent in it. Soon I began to yearn deeply for my time in the quiet stillness with my God. Being in the silence gave me a new filter from which to view life: the filter of vibrant beauty. Give yourself the gift of silence and begin the year with peace.

And so it is.

Rev. Elizabeth Rowley

Leave a Reply