Hit Your Pause Button a Few Minutes a Day
by CYDNEY COFFEY, CSU Communications Graduate Assistant
The spring semester is in full swing! It is insane to think that we are already in week three of this semester. Like last semester, I am hoping to provide you with tools to put into your toolbox that you can use throughout the semester and in your life going forward to tap into mindfulness. These tools that I will provide you with can be used to help evolve your beliefs, attitudes, and feelings about yourself, as these are all crucial to your emotional and mental health. I will continue to use mindfulness cards to help guide these discussions. Shout out to mindfulness!
This upcoming week we are going to talk about the importance of silence. I am encouraging everyone to tap into rest and balance. The focus is on making space for silence. With so many things demanding our attention each and every day and throughout the day, we can easily become used to having our minds filled at all times. When you think about it, when was the last time no thoughts were running through your mind? I’ll give you a moment to think. Even when we are unwinding at home at the end of the day, we continue the pattern by consuming more distractions through music, TV, movies, games, thinking about the next day, or thinking about dinner (I know I do these things!). While these things are not inherently bad, each of these things is still taking up space in our minds making it rare for our minds to have nothing to do. The concept of doing nothing needs to be normalized!!
When we are able to put all distractions aside, we can experience what happens when we allow ourselves to embrace silence. Silence can be a funny thing. Some might find it awkward and some might find it peaceful and calming. Silence can allow an individual to recharge their mind, body, soul, and spirit, amongst other things in addition to increasing your creativity, awareness, concentration, productivity, patience, or learning capabilities in many aspects. Trust me, silence is a tool you want in your toolbox! I challenge you to try spending 3-10 minutes a day sitting quietly without distractions. If there is a thought that rolls into your mind, let it come in through one ear and leave through the other ear. Thoughts will sneak into your mind, there’s no doubt about that. Fun fact- a new study has suggested that an average person has about 6,200 thoughts per day. *Insert mind-blowing emoji* Just mind-blowing.
“Silence is a source of great strength.”
Lao Tzu
Imagine taking the time to sort through all of these thoughts. It’s a lot. Your brain is on go mode. This is a huge reason as to why many individuals find it difficult to fall asleep at night- they have thousands of thoughts running through their mind each day and sometimes your brain just doesn’t know when to settle down. This is where silence comes into play. When I am taking time to indulge in silence each day, it is typically right before I go to sleep. I go through some breathing exercises and work to power my body down. In order to do this, I utilize the headspace app (sidenote, I highly recommend downloading the Headspace app to aid you while you practice silence and stillness. Plus, Headspace has a TV series on Netflix too)! If I have thoughts that jump into my mind during my period of silence, I imagine my little ‘bodyguards’ in my head that will escort my thoughts right out. It might sound silly, but it works!
During this time of silence, don’t allow thoughts to take up your mind space. The American Institute of Stress reports around 77 percent of people in the U.S. show some physical signs of stress in their everyday life. A period of silence each day allows the chance to relax and reduce stress levels. Go ahead and give silence a try!
“Silence is a gift. Learn to value its essence.”
Unknown
