From Noise to Quiet

A few months ago, in church, my pastor preached a sermon entitled "From Noise to Quiet".  The notion made me smile - quiet?  What's that?  As any teacher knows, especially those of us who teach music, that is a nearly non-existent thing in our work!  And, if you are anything like me, those after school hours are also filled with activity - whether it is with our families, friends, or even fun activities for ourselves, our lives tend to move at such a fast pace that time and space for reflection is nonexistent.  I think of quiet not only as the absence of sound - it also encompasses taking a break from the "noise" of life.

Making room for quiet is hard for me - it's a discipline.  It's not something I'm that comfortable with.  It is hard to put aside my to-do list, turn off my electronics, slow my brain down from it's million-miles-an-hour-pace and just stop.  After about ten minutes, I get antsy and want to do something.  And yet, the more I fill my time up, the more I find myself needing that "decompression" time (whether I acknowledge it or not).  When I don't get it, I am not at my best - it's as simple as that.

Here are some ways I've built quiet into my life:

• Early morning quiet time: I get up crazy early in the morning (around 4am on a normal school day - yes, I'm a morning person) to just spend some time preparing for the day.  I journal about my thoughts and anything that happened in the previous 24 hours.  Being a person of faith, this time also includes reading my Bible and praying.  This helps me start each day as a new day, not hanging onto anything that happened in the past.
• Exercise: Part of the reason I get up so early is that I swim or go for a walk every (work) morning.  I love this time - not only is it good for my physical health, but my mental health as well.  While I am pushing my body, my mind is left free to wander and further process my thoughts or dream about the future.  Many of my best ideas come to me when I am exercising!
• Sleeping in: I try to give myself at least one morning every week (usually Saturday) to sleep in as late as I want!  Since I normally wake up so early, I don't actually sleep in very late - but I stay in bed, relax, and just rest.  Giving myself permission to not get up right away is a great way to find time for quiet in my life.
• Riding the bus: As funny as this sounds, I have really enjoyed riding public transportation as a way to slow my life down and create space for quiet.  It is a time where I am not hooked up to wi-fi, so there is not a lot of feeling guilty about what I'm not accomplishing on my checklist.  Sometimes I make conversation with random people, sometimes I have to wait at the bus stop for awhile, and sometimes I have to walk a bit to get where I am going.  All of these activities remind me to slow down and be present in the moment.

Finding quiet in my life is a continual struggle, and I don't think that will ever change, but I am committed to finding small pockets of it wherever I go!

How do you make space for quiet into your life?