“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal
I’ve known a great deal of people in my life, both living alone and living in a relationship, who can’t bare the quiet of silence.
They immediately need to turn on the television, the radio or other noise making device in an effort to drown out the silence all around them.
I’ve never understood this really. What’s wrong with sitting in silence every now and then? Why must there always be something to distract us?
I often wonder if this fear of silence has been created by our fierce reliance on technology. We’re so used to being instantly gratified by computers and smartphones, which have become like another appendage, that many of us no longer know how to conduct ourselves when those distractions aren’t there.
Or maybe it’s more psychological.
In an article by George Hofmann he states the following: “A study of 580 undergraduate students undertaken over six years, reported by Bruce Fell on The Conversation, shows that the constant accessibility and exposure to background media has created a mass of people who fear silence.”
Interesting.
Or maybe it’s because being in the silence causes our minds to be at peace, and when they’re at peace they often think about problems or issues you probably don’t want to deal with.
On Psychology Today, Carl Alasko Ph.D. says, “There is an immutable fact about denial: it does not work—long term. Reality always wins. And when it does, the next step in the process is blame, which shifts responsibility onto someone or something else. “I only did it because of you! If you hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have done this.” So where there’s denial, blame is always available to ease the pain when reality bites.”
Well there might be a reason why some are so uncomfortable to be alone in the silence with their thoughts.
Whatever your reason for fearing silence, I urge you to embrace it. Utilize it to rejuvenate your spirit, sort through the difficulties in your life and refocus your attention on what truly matters most to you.