Five weeks of shared silence
...and how I feel about it now
Five weeks ago, a friend and I started this Monday initiative of sitting one hour in silence, in the center of the city.
We wanted to create this space of just being a human, no need to talk, perform, do, do & DOOO… more, more and MORE, optimizing, explaining & all the performative acts we are forced to do these days.
Very seldomly do we allow ourselves to just be, and do nothing. And also did we forget, that we can still connect to people through silence. Deeply.
So these last five weeks we have been doing that. We were this amount of people: 3, 3, 7, 4 and 2.
We were also at least one person with us every time, remotely, or let’s say: telepathically, and today I found out that another one who joined once, but got sick afterwards, joined us in spirit every time as well, doing her own alone-lunch-Mondays.
This is just brilliant! I love it a lot & appreciate every single person who joins, weather physically or in spirit, because I do believe that this is possible.
I feel very grateful to have started this and I am looking forward to it every week.
To me, this is an hour where I can just sit & be. No need to do anything but drinking tea, listening to the sounds around us, exchanging smiles about the birds surrounding us, looking around, closing my eyes & just simply be.
It is almost like a little sanctuary that we create together, where there is absolutely no need for words or any wordy-exchanges, we signal “Hi” and “Bye” in any other ways, and they are always very connecting moments.
Generally, sitting in silence together creates a type of bond somehow, a deep connection that has no words, needs no words and is quite strong.
I also don’t feel any expectations around it. I was happy that other people joined, I am equally fine when we were just two of us, it strips away any want or needs or pressure or rules. They dont exist somehow.
And all that brings a type of ease into my body, mind & soul.
I also am learning to just let my thoughts be. I dont condemn them, I dont tell them they are bad, they shouldn’t be there, cos I want to have silence in my mind as well.
No, they are welcome, I like observing them & it is actually ridiculous if I follow their way of appearing & dissapearing & becoming one thing, then the other. It is like as if they are tiny little entities that jump around & have fun.
And in a way, I enjoy watching them & I learned by now, through meditation, that there is no need to have as an aim, a quiet mind.
It will calm down sooner or later, sometimes easier, sometimes it’s more tough. These moments of sitting in silence and just being are very meditative as well, but I dont want to call them meditation. Cos it brings some type of certain vibe or connotation with it.
To me, meditation can be all kinds of things, recently I even embraced the fact that feeling my feelings of anger and rage & letting the flow through my body instead of repressing them, is a type of meditation too.
So in a way, thoughts can be meditative as well, or the observation od our own thoughts.
And yes: I have been in moments of mind-less-ness and thought-less-ness & those are great. But they are not THE only thing that is worthy to achieve.
Sitting in silence with people, conencting on a subconscious level is equally rewarding & important.
Cos you know, I could throw all kinds of science at you as well, neurological facts, brainwaves synchronizing, energetic balances, mirror neurons, how we become each other whenever we spend time with each other, how nature changes us & grounds us etc. All that is happening just while we sit together in silence.
Sooo, I will continue, we will continue! And if anyone of you wants to join, physically here in Umeå or telepathically from wherever you are right now: yo uare more than welcome!
Let’s create this pockets of peace, silence & connection together. We do need more of those in the world!
Love,
Daria