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In our everyday lives, silence occupies a very small space. We wake up to noise, with our alarms going off. We tend to check our notifications and scroll our feeds even before we get out of bed. Podcasts or music fill up the time on our commutes and getting ready. Conversations, meetings, e-mail notifications and social media occupy every minute of our waking day. And, even at night, many of us fall asleep with a show or movie playing in the background, or the noise of our doomscrolling becomes our lullaby. We might not realise it, but somewhere along the way, silence has become something we try to avoid. 

What might happen if everything goes quiet? 

For a lot of us, silence might not be unsettling. When we are not distracted by the noise of our everyday life, we are left alone with our thoughts. Worries, thoughts, emotions or decisions that we might have will have to be faced when we pause the noise. So, what we might be avoiding isn’t silence itself but what it makes us feel. 

A study found that many participants struggled to sit alone with their thoughts for even 15 minutes. Some people even went as far as giving themselves a mild jolt of electric shock rather than spend their time in silence. This shows how uncomfortable quiet moments can feel when we are not used to them or seeking them out intentionally. 

Modern life has made it really easy for us to escape these moments of silence. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying a little distraction, constantly filling every silent moment takes away the space for us to self-reflect. This leaves us so constantly occupied that we never fully give ourselves time to understand our own thoughts and emotions. 

But it is important to realize that silence can be one of the healthiest experiences we can have. Studies have shown that even 10 minutes of quiet time and mindfulness can help lower stress, improve focus, and support creativity, thereby improving emotional well-being. 

Creating periods of silence in our lives doesn’t take too much effort; steady and simple lifestyle changes can lead us there. For instance, make sure that you don’t reach for your phone as soon as you wake up. Maybe try commuting to work one day a week without any music or podcasts on. Set aside a day or two in a month to go screen-free. much effort; steady,

It might feel odd at first, but over time we will realise that it leads us to experience things rather than escape them. 

In a world where attention is currency, choosing silence and giving yourself the space to focus on only you becomes a powerful act. It makes us realise that what we’ve been afraid of missing out on might not be a notification or new content but our own original thoughts and emotions that have been waiting all along to be heard.