Sit down in a chair, preferably outside. Look into space. A blank, empty wall. Ignore the noise around you. After all, it is merely noise. Don’t think about anything. Think about thinking about nothing. Take long, relaxed breaths. If it’s hard, start counting sheep. Feel the ridges on your hands. Bury your face in your hands. Think about your hands. Look through your fingers at the wall. Repeat. Continue once there are no thoughts left.

Now stop.

Close your eyes. Slowly, thoughts will come. They may seem random, but trust them. Start thinking about them. Gently, they’ll start making sense. Develop them. Play with them. Mold them.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
— Aldous Huxley

Do you hear it? It’s the sound of silence.

Today’s world is noisy. Wherever you live, you can’t help but deal with the internet. For many of us, we make our living off of it. For others, we learn from it. Some teach others with it. It’s forever changed our view of the world. Yet we’re not meant to chain ourselves to it.

As humans, we’re incredibly social beings. That, alongside the ability to learn and maybe even opposable thumbs has allowed us to get where we are today. But in all honesty, we can’t handle the internet.

We grow addicted to it. Without it, we feel alone. As if loneliness is a problem, a problem that can be solved by sharing. And so we share. We over-share. Some even say that they live life to share the story of their experiences with others.

This gets us stuck. We’re too busy checking our feeds to effectively get our work done, but we’re also too busy hearing the noise around us to think. Which is why silence exists: For concentration.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
— Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Focus

That’s the point of silence. The purpose of white noise. The motive behind disconnecting. To get away from all the tumult caused by the internet. To be free of the urge to read the latest status or tweet or article. To single-task when thinking, not just while doing.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
— Helen Keller