Have you ever realized how rare it is for you to sit in silence now a days? And I mean truly sit, not being sucked into your smart phone or distracted by life.

If your like me your almost always plugged into music, podcasts, or audiobooks. It’s a great way to consume and learn things you wouldn’t normally have the time for. I have been flying through books thanks to audiobooks, and I’m growing because of them. But because I’m listening so much, I don’t often walk the dogs around the block without headphones. I don’t tend to do the dishes without my phone on speaker and that’s not always a positive.

We need silence to really digest all our thoughts, we need our minds to bounce around like ping pong balls going topic to topic until we find something worth settling on. We need to listen to ourselves not just outside sources, and that is getting a lot harder to do.

I love taking a hot shower, and I think a huge part of that is that I get to let my mind unwind from all the content and think over the things it really needs to without anything real to pull my attention away. I don’t always feel like I’ve gotten life changing thoughts from this time, but I always feel more relaxed and ready for whatever comes next.

I think we think about thinking differently than we used to. We think it needs to be big or it’s not worth taking a chunk out of our day. I used to be amazed by people who drive with the radio off, but now I think that they might be on to something. I’m not going to do it all the time, but from time to time it’s nice to let my mind wander.

All of this is to say I think the sound of silence is underrated, and I think we’ve been taking time away from it for too long. We know the rise of technology has changed our mental health for the worse, but I don’t think it’s always about comparisons, likes, and online fighting. I think some of it has to do with our need to be plugged in on the time and overloading ourselves.

So maybe take a drive without the music on, or walk the dogs without and audiobook, or clean without your favorite podcast. You might find yourself more recharged.