Is silence nothing? What happens when we engage in silence? What happens when we sit in silence? Do you feel a change in your energy when you sit in silence? Is silence tangible? I’m asking these questions upon returning from a week-long class on consciousness. During the week we had the opportunity to explore Bohmian Dialogue, a circle of silence but not as meditation.
There’s a difference between sitting in silence and meditating, an intentional silence where there is no discussion and Bohmian Dialogue silence where the silence is part of the consciousness and that’s the wave the participants ride. I wondered a lot about this type of silence particularly as it pertains to those facing a chronic or life-threatening illness. I’m intrigued at what the experience of silence does to the body in terms of healing and how that impacts or overflows to emotional and spiritual healing.
One of the important parts of this process is the ability to be silent in the presence of others. I’ll admit I’m a talker and when I first engaged in intentional silence during my training to be a psychotherapist, I was frustrated to say the least. Over the years I find the silence is a cauldron and my body is the liquid in the cauldron and every so often something “bubbles up” that needs to be expressed.
What might you experience during a period of silence? Would this release anything you’ve been holding on to that causes self-limitations? How would allowing this bubble to rise to the surface and even burst aid you in your journey to health and healing? It’s an amazing process because you learn to become discriminating about what’s important and not important to express. You learn the difference between a reaction and a response (more on this in weeks to come) and that’s a powerful platform for your personal healing.
No matter how you look at it, silence is something. It can be transformational and that’s a great advantage to making something out of nothing.
Pilgrim Pathway/Surviving Strong 