The Being.. in being Silent

I was watching the movie, Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts, the other day and one of the characters was practicing being silent for a period of time when she encountered Julia's character. I thought.. could I do that? Just be silent for a long period of time? Could I be silent while doing an outside activity, or while in the grocery store or at the Post Office? I think not. I could go a whole day not talking on the phone, or not singing to myself all off key but just NOT talking at all?? Occasionally I talk to myself and I think myself would be pretty upset if we didn't carry on our usual conversations about nothing... like the bills or the idiot who just cut me off. Those are some good conversations I have with myself.

I was, however, wondering what it would be like to not talk for a certain amount of time. To just look at people when they say something stupid as opposed to saying... "Did you REALLY just say that?" Or when someone asks a really dumb question, I can just point to a button that says "I am practicing being silent", like the woman did in the movie. Somehow I don't think that was the point of the excercise.

When the woman was done with her practice of being silent, she again ran into Julia Robert's character and ran her mouth at ninety miles an hour. She was so happy to finally speak she didn't even realize Julia now had on a button that said "practicing silence." The woman spoke on experience. She stated that it was refreshing to NOT talk and said that her throat felt great. I was wondering if there was any truth to that so I researched a few things.

I teach workshops on the chakras. Chakra is a sanskirt word for wheel. There are wheels of energy that flow through the body and govern different areas of the body. Looking at my chakra chart, the throat is governed by the THROAT CHAKRA. The the location of the throat chakra is around the nape of the neck and over the thyroid glands. The physical associations that the throat chakra governs are the thyroid, parathyroid, hypothalamus, throat and the mouth. Some of the functions that the throat chakra are related to are speech, sound, vibration, communication, truth and expression. When the throat chakra is damaged or imbalanced, this could effect how you communicate with people both verbally or through written communication. Smoking can greatly damage the throat chakra.

Silence gives the throat a rest. Entering your inner silence gives you deep rest and healing. When you are silent, your mouth and jaw is not moving. "Taking time to be still and quiet gets your body’s rhythms back in sync… you’ll feel more calm, centered and strong."  "Create a silence retreat at home. Set aside an evening at home when you will not talk. Turn the ringer off the phone and don’t answer it; turn off the TV. Practice silent exercise. Silence helps you listen to the healthy signals your body is giving you—to slow down, to go faster, to straighten up."


"Silence allows listening. Most people in our world long to be truly heard. Those who enter a period of silence each day learn to hear what is being said and what is not being said."  If you are doing the talking while others are talking or are just listening through the conversation just to get to to your turn to speak, you are not doing the listening. 


Try being silent for one full day. Write down all that you have experienced within your "silent retreat". You will be amazed at what you have discovered.


As always, thank you for reading. Visit my website at www.nu-bodi.com and I will see you tomorrow.