Importance of Silence practice
28 Jan 2023 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
Silence is the most important and powerful practice in the Universe for every single individual to reach the ultimate goal. Silence is the “words of wisdom”. A regular one-hour routine of silence practice helps to stay grounded, and focused, and remain hopeful when your mind wants to spiral.
The Sphere of Silence :
The practice of silence is also known as “Mouna Vratha” in eastern philosophy. Just abstaining from speaking for a set period each day saves energy and directs you to the right path. It brings inner peace and makes a better listener. Silence allows us to focus our energies. It provides us with the clarity we require to face challenges and uncertainty with confidence. The hour of silence you practice each morning can be a time for gathering your thoughts, training your mind, and deciding how you want to approach the day.
The Procedure :
Let us divide Sphere of Silence into three segments 30 minutes, 20 minutes, and 10 minutes each. If you’re just getting started, you can try a shortened version by cutting time from each segment, but I heartily recommend working your way up to the full one hour for maximum benefits.
Your goal should be to complete at least a 21-day cycle without a break.
When you first start, you will believe it is simple.
The initial inspiration will fade, and reality will take over.
Push through this stage and affix it to your routine.
It takes time to form a habit, but it will eventually become a second habit.
The Preparation for silence practice :
The foundation rule, as the name implies, is complete silence. The entire one-hour practice must be completed without outside diversions, so turn off all devices and locate a peaceful spot away from others. Prepare a journal and a pen. Pick up a book you’ve been meaning to read for a while and keep it close by.
The First 30 Minutes: Goal Setting
This gives the process for this first segment of the practice, which is also the most important. Some of the things can be your own creative or you can follow these steps- break it down into three 10-minute sets.
Pick up your note copy and use the first 10 minutes to write your short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Then, dedicate the next 10-minute set to assessing your progress on the goals you set the previous day.
When you write your goals down, you are forced to be very clear about what you want to accomplish. When you do this every morning, you are waking up to those goals, ask questions about your progress, and recalibrate your plans if needed. This will motivate you to focus on moving forward and complete the tasks necessary for achieving whatever success looks like to you.
Use the final 10 minutes to take note of any unmet goals (especially short-term or daily goals) and assess the reasons why you have not achieved them. The events of tomorrow develop from what you do today, so understanding yesterday is the key to shaping tomorrow.
The Next 20 Minutes: Learning and Progression
This is the time to read that book you bought years ago but never got around to reading.
The ground rule for this segment is to select a book that teaches you new things and broadens your horizons.
When you incorporate reading into your morning routine — when your mind is rested and ready to absorb new ideas — you start your day with inspiration rather than fear of the unknown.
Reading in complete silence and taking down notes gives a better understanding. By writing down your learnings and insights, you will be able to come up with action points to apply to your life constructed on the philosophies in the text.
So, allocate the first 10 minutes of this sequence to reading a topic of your text.
Then, in the rest 10 minutes, write a summary by your hand of what you just read.
By the end of the book, you will have engaged in an additional step of processing, designed to allow for profound retention and analyzation as well as deepening your short-term memory.
The Last Ten Minutes: Mindfulness
This final section serves as a grounding phase, similar to a cool-down after a good workout.
Use the final ten minutes to reflect on yourself and, if you have faith in a higher power, to communicate with the Divine, the Cosmology, your mysticism, the law of nature, the Universe, or whatever you prefer.
Note: In addition to this- the practice of breath observation 5- 10 minutes in the morning right after you wake up and 5-10 minutes of breath observation just before going to bed is very helpful.
Its objective is to be present and pay attention to your feelings. Begin with (incoming and outgoing) breath observation. After five minutes practice witnessing your thought and emotions. This acts as a natural filter to purify your thoughts. It allows you time to contemplate what your view is and what those views mean to you. It helps you to harness your harmony during stressful situations and mindfully choose to stay balanced, and free from negativity.
Sometimes, be alone with nature, wildlife, forest, rivers, etc., and continue to experience the silence within.
The result of Silence Practice :
- When you practice this for 21 days, you will notice instantaneous changes in your perspective of the world around you, inaugurate to attain a strong and penetrating discernment into everything you perform.
- This is helpful for both worldly and spiritual success.
- Your daily activities will become better and better.
- You will realize a higher level of peace and balance.
- You will realize the joy of inner tranquility. You will realize that silence is a powerful way to deal with stress, anxiety, fear, agony, anger, etc.
- This will give you better control over your mind, and self-control.
- It improves your decision-making.
- You will start to understand the meaning and purpose of your life.
- This eventually gives you self-confidence and an untold intelligence of who you are. The trust in yourself increases.
- You can feel secure amid the noise, uncertainties, and various ups and down around you.
- Unnecessary thoughts and mental agitation are reduced.
- The fifth limb of yoga i.e. pratyahara (mastery and control over sense organs) will become successful.
- It conserves energy and brings you back to the self.
- Sage Patanjali states “Yogaschitta Vritti Nirodah” i.e. cessation of mental tendencies is yoga. This practice will take you to the yogic state.
- Observing Silence in Daily life activities awakens your true potential and inner wisdom.
- You will find the real you when experiencing the real inner silence which stays even amidst tremendous activity.
In our yoga teacher training course, we highly focus on telling our students the true meaning of silence. How one can know oneself with the help of silence practice. We teach our students to practice silence for at least one day as it helps them not only for some days but also for the long journey ahead. We teach them how can silence practice help them in enhancing their meditation. As we teach them several ways of meditation during the 200 hour yoga teacher training course and 300 hour yoga teacher taining course.