How Do I Turn This Thing Down? Finding Quiet in a Very Unquiet World

I miss the quiet of childhood. When nothing was going on in my immediate vicinity and I was just SO BORED. I was so bored in fact, that I had to go make my own entertainment, which was likely my parents’ intention all along.

Upon reflection, there was something profound in overcoming that boredom. A life lesson that I find myself returning to in this day and age of amplified demands for my attention all hours of the day. Not a difficult thing to do but like so many things learned early on, we sometimes forget.

So Where Did the Quiet Go?

We became distracted. Technology discovered our idle minds and started to spoon-feed us information. It doesn’t matter if the information is of any consequence or even true. What matters is what the entertainment industry describes as engagement. Can they divert our attention to them and their priorities exclusively? Sort of like caring for a 5-year old.

Look at how our news is no longer informative but entertaining. Catastrophize every inconsequential story and people will pay attention. Something as variable as weather becomes a pending menace to our lives when spun out as a tale that sounds like it certainly should be true. Play with statistics to make your point and hope no one really looks too closely at what you are doing (“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”)

At the end of each day, after these excursions of emotions over any number of threats (How the way you brush your teeth may shorten your life or smoking now cures cancer!), we are overstimulated and exhausted. Of course, there are a number of products on the market guaranteed to give you that restful night’s sleep. I exaggerate but you got that, right?

The quiet we seek is still where we left it. We just need to unplug and go find it.

Looking for Your Quiet

The quiet we are looking for is not necessarily a place, thing, or activity. It can be any of these or it may be something else. Whatever your quiet, it is unique to you.

Finding it means to unplug from all of those distractions that are vying for your constant attention. Despite all of your concerns to the contrary, you will not miss out on anything important when you unplug for a while. Life does go on and surprisingly all of that noise that we subscribe to each day really does not amount to much of anything over time. The stories just come and go. The end result is that surprisingly little actually changes.

Finding Quiet

Start with asking yourself, “What do you like to do?”

Not what activities do you like – we likely have lots of those already. What is it you like to do that makes for a good day?

Some days it is my garden that takes me away. Interacting with growing and crawling things to help them grow. Observing changes in plants that Mother Nature is most certainly in charge of and sometimes just saying goodbye to plants that I had high hopes for but alas did not work. Letting go is a good experience but it does take a lot of practice and some getting used to before a certain quiet acceptance is attained.

Other days, a long cycling ride in the boondocks, preparing a homemade meal, or just settling in with a work of fiction (fun reading!) will do it for me. Literally anything can be your meditation to accomplish quiet in your life. The key is intentionally stepping away from the things that demand your attention and participating in the activities that don’t. My garden will keep growing whether I am there to tend it or not.

I remember as a kid my Mom making crochet doilies. Every table in the house had at least one and she still kept on making them. That was her quiet. Even with us kids bouncing around, she found something that spoke to her peaceful center. Creativity is a truly wonderful place to go.

Join the Fun

So go and explore. Take a walk. Go to a museum and reflect on the Art. Just sit and enjoy a sunrise or sunset in your own backyard. Whatever works for you, works. Find what you like and enjoy it. Be courageous in going back to activities you haven’t done in a while and try new things if the old ones don’t fit anymore. The peace you are looking for is just around the corner. Give it a try.

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Recipe

Here’s an easy and refreshing summer salad that is easy to put together. I use tuna canned in oil because of the flavor but you can also us the water version also.