C.S. Lewis, in his book series The Cosmic Trilogy, refers to Earth as The Silent Planet. We who live here know otherwise.

This is a world of noise. Even when we think that we are in a place of silence and quiet, we deceive ourselves. We spend our lives being dictated to by outside stimuli: a TV left on in an adjoining room, a cell-phone demanding attention as the ‘ping’ announces another incoming message, music coming from a storefront you’ve just passed by. You don’t even realise that you can hear that 50-cycle hum in your walls – you only notice it when the power goes out and your house takes on a new kind of silence. Distant dogs barking, the squeal of tyres and a far-off police siren…we block most of this out because our brains wouldn’t handle the strain if we didn’t. Even the constant bombardment by other peoples’ problems are noise.

It was in the midst of all this that I recently took part in a Vipassana Meditation Course. I absolutely cannot tell you about this course, as it is something that you need to experience for yourself. What I can tell you is that we had to observe noble silence for a total of ten days. No external stimuli, in the form of electronics, is present. Those ten days are about silence, silence from the outside world and, in that silence, I learnt some things.

I realised that we so often talk for the sake of talking. I learnt that being silent meant that I was able to listen to myself, to ME, and I learnt to clearly hear what was okay for me and what was not. I learned about the importance of not following the pack, but that I could lead my own pack from within myself.

I know, and you know, that there is very little that we can do about the noise around us. But we can do something about how we respond to it and how we let it influence us. As Dr. Bruce Lipton said:

“Your perception of any given thing, at any given moment, can influence the brain chemistry which, in turn, affects the environment where your cells reside and controls their fate.”

The thoughts and beliefs that we carry around in our minds are so powerful in the construction of our lives – but often we simply cannot hear them, amidst the noise and the chaos. That alone is reason enough to mould those thoughts and beliefs into positive, ecological thoughts.

If you have tried to do this and realised what a long, ongoing battle it is – then call me for a session. Together, we can chat about a technique that really works to re-wire the neurons, so that the ones that fire together are the very ones that are positive.

We shall talk a little bit more about this process, and about how to find silence amongst the noise, in Part Two of this series, next month.

Maybe a truly Silent Planet is a matter of choice.

Kindest regards,

Marléne