Book #14 - Listening Below the Noise

Listening Below the Noise: The Transformative Power of Silence was a book I had started before going to the beach. It was on my Kindle, so I didn't intentionally bring it. But I intentionally finished it while I had a good bit of time.

Leclaire's account of her experience throughout the years of her intentionally chosen days of silence allowed me to view her time spent in the real world, her home, with her family, while choosing times where she would be silent. Two Mondays out of the month, she decided to make those her silent days - not so much that her world was silent, but she chose to be silent in her world.

It's not an easy experience - she comes up against her family who does not understand her choice to do this. Frustration that others have during this time are all a part of her experience. However, her choice last throughout the years, even during the times she comes to the conclusion that she is going to stop, she plows through it with keeping the silence, even though she really sees no reason to continue.

The author also shares times where silence can be abusive, as those who have not chosen silence, but when others choose silence and isolation for them. Examples include those who have been placed in solitary confinement, those who choose silence as a form to abuse others close to them.

However, the majority of her book addresses the importance of having time in one's life to experience silence at some level. At the end she shares ways of going about the silence in our noise filled world.

How do you make quiet time or periods of silence for yourself?