Silence

The Sunday Conversation: Deepak Chopra

This is a terrific example of how being silent can help you find your essential, authentic self.

Before I moved to Uruguay in 2005, I partook in a fantastic weekend doing The Landmark Forum.  My experience with doing the introductory course was priceless.  It made me have to write down what I really wanted.  (Admittedly, I think I was left to enjoy my experience more than the average "student" of the course because of my impending move to Uruguay where ... they have no classes offered!  Thus, I was not hounded to persuade the masses to join in the Landmark revolution/gift.)

My only real task was to KNOW what I wanted.  What would make me happy?  First I had to get quiet to even begin to realize what it was that I wanted.  Then I finally got to the nut of it, and I wrote this, "I just want everybody to shut up!"

Then I moved to Uruguay.  
Given that I didn't speak Spanish, or at least not the way Uruguayans speak Spanish, I got my wish.  And, in doing so, I too was silenced.

Of course, as this insightful and rudimentary article by Deepak Chopra points out, being silent is only the first step to happiness but getting to the silence is not always easy.
Sometimes you have to move a million miles away to do it.


If you can carve out a full day to be silent, do it!  You'll be so happy that you did.  That was my gift to myself for my birthday this year and it was life-altering.  I can honestly say that I am happier for having done it.
So .... be silent.