Silence in the city
Silence in the city
Living in a city means to be constantly surrounded by sound, traffic, trains, construction, conversations, stereo systems, television, arguments etc. Even though we learn to tune a lot of it out of our awareness, it is still there simmering away, adding to our stress levels.
The frequency of all this noise is not natural to your system, in fact it is jarring. The sounds of nature on the other hand are mostly soothing and calming. A gentle babbling brook will bring you peace and relaxation, where as the sound of rain on a roof can help you sleep, the crashing waves of the ocean can remind you how powerful you are. People live the cities in droves at weekends to head for the relaxing aspects of the countryside. And it is the sounds and the silence which can help us get to a quieter place inside ourselves.
Sometimes it is not possible to get away from it all and so for your own sanity there needs to be some ways for you to find this silence or nature sounds while still in the city.
One obvious way is through nature soundtracks, though sometimes this can just be an extra noise in an over ready over stimulated environment.
Another way is through the practice of meditation. Meditation will not remove the sounds around you, but it will put you in a peaceful relaxed state that is in harmony with everything going on around you. To me that is the main purpose of meditation, it is not the actual sitting meditating that is important, but learning to bring that state of peace and relaxation and acceptance of life as it is, out into the world long after your days meditation has ceased.
Meditation is a very simple process, but simple does not necessarily mean easy. I always recommend people start very slowly, even 30 secs if they have never meditated before. When you first start your mind will rebel and in my experience if you sit for too long in the beginning you will find it all too frustrating and give up. So be gentle with yourself and start slowly.
All you have to do is become aware of your breath as you breathe in and out, this is a point of focus for your mind, but then just let everything be as it is. If your mind wanders just become aware of that and in the awareness you will be back in the present moment. If you feel pain, or boredom, or frustration, just notice those too and let them all be ok. When you become ok with everything that is happening in your meditation you will become less reactive in your everyday life, things that used to bother you will have no effect at all. You will simply know that they are external experiences and will no longer have the power to pull you away from your peaceful state.
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Tags:calmness,meditation,peace,quiet
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