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Does silence have a decibel?

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By Pooja Marwah

In a world where everything around us moves at alarmingly fast speeds, doesn’t the sound of silence get lost? So immersed are we in the constant cacophony of mindless or mindful conversations that we barely pause to even take a breath. It’s almost as though our importance will diminish or people will assume we aren’t of the same intellect if we choose to remain silent and listen. The need to be constantly heard, perhaps even idolised is so rampant that we have forgotten to stay in sync with whom we really are.

One of the questions in an IQ test is to join a series of nine dots in four lines, without lifting your pencil. And the only way that is possible is if you go outside the box and then look in. So if you want to find yourself, the only way to do it is to be able to look at yourself from the outside. You have to look inwards at yourself in silence and then notice the things that make you happy, the ones that bring a tear. What is it about you that you love or that you want to change?

Silence, once considered a lack of social etiquette is now re-making its rounds amongst society. Life does come full circle and with another variant looming over our heads, a lot of people are finally acknowledging that there is indeed a reason why we are born with two ears and one mouth.

Why are people opting to hear more than speak?

You show growth as a mature individual who has the capacity to listen.

Silence has a voice and it is powerful. It says a lot about you as a person. It means that whilst you may have an opinion about the topic being spoken, you respect the other person enough to let them complete their viewpoint before you interrupt. It shows that your mind is focussed on what the person is saying and you are in the moment, not lost in between strains of thought.

You come across as someone confident, without the need to keep chattering away.

Confidence does not mean being splashed all across social media. It is when you have the ability to hold your ground and listen to people instead of a need to interrupt and present your two bits. There is something very attractive about a man or woman who has the innate trait to speak only when they have something powerful to add to the conversation. It is like everyone stops to listen to them for they already know that whatever is said will be a value-addition.

It reflects and brings to the surface, patience as an inherent character trait.

“Have patience will all things, but first of all with yourself.” When you exude the ability to listen, you are also simultaneously building up your own levels of tolerance. The conversationalist may or may not be making sense and it is rather frustrating to listen when you know all they are doing is incessantly blabbering, but choosing to listen first is allowing you to give yourself time to compose your thoughts and build your patience. And that is a part of character building.

Silence, in more ways than one, is one of the most powerful unspoken languages. Without saying a single word, you have the power to bare it all. Susan Cain’s book ‘Quiet’ illustrates this very statement wherein she writes about the power introverts have in shaping the world. Sometimes, saying nothing actually encapsulates everything.

Having an opinion is very important, but that does not necessarily imply that you have to enforce it on everything or everyone you meet.

(Pooja Poddar Marwah is an award winning author and Blogger. She writes on contemporary living and
offers incisive reflections on the world around us.
Her blog, Random Conversations is a go to guide to deal with the myriad struggles we face each day.)