7. The space between sound

I wake up. Alarm buzz.

Make a coffee. Podcast in the background.

Sit at the desk and work. Music playing.

Chat to a housemate. Leave when stop talking.

Watch a Netflix show. Constant sound.

Silence is a foreign entity to our daily lives. I know for my life I wake up and I flipping hate silence. Immediately I’ll find myself going for a podcast, some banging tunes, or just a Youtube video. It’s an attempt to fill that uncomfortable silence between the noise.

But why is it uncomfortable?

Inner demons?

Overthinking?

Lack of concentration?

All of the above?

I think silence exposes.

It exposes our lack of concentration, it exposes our priorities and ultimately it exposes how comfortable we are within ourselves and our company.

I’m big into running and when I first started out I could not live without music. That was the thing that kept me distracted, kept my mind busy, kept me going.

A few months back I exclusively had to run with music. The 30 minutes+ I was out alone was too much for me to run without sound so I had to have some headphones on for every run. It was impossible to not do this.

Until it wasn’t.

One time my headphones weren’t charged and I simply had to go out without the headphones. It was quite uncomfortable but it wasn't impossible.

This pushing out of my comfort zone was amazing. Especially into a space where I could have some headspace and time to be free of all the noise.

Then I just repeated it.

Going out on my own just for a run is my quiet meditative time.

It enables a different sort of pace and thought process for the rest of the day.

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be in running. Bringing this newfound confidence in the silence I find ideas and creativity much more constant in my mind, my focus is there and when chatting to people I am much more present.

The undercurrent of noise enables us to not work so hard in all these events. It puts a crutch on us. It keeps us tethered and reliant on external stimuli.

So looking at my day, I’m going to try and make space for the silence… I wonder what else replaces it.