The Energy of Silence and Actually Pay attention

“The silence between the notes is as necessary because the notes themselves.” ~Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Once I was youthful, I assumed data was one thing you might seize—one thing you might write down, measure, and show. I believed that to grasp one thing, I needed to clarify it. And for a very long time, I attempted.

However then, life—via movie, via music, via lengthy conversations with folks whose knowledge couldn’t be present in books—taught me one thing else: essentially the most highly effective truths don’t all the time are available phrases. They exist within the house between them.

I realized this lesson within the mountains, the place the sky stretches vast, and silence isn’t empty however filled with presence. I had traveled there to doc a bunch of elders who carried the historical past of their folks of their voices, of their tales, within the songs they sang to the youthful generations.

One elder, specifically, stood out. He didn’t converse a lot, however when he did, the others listened. Alongside his fellow elders, he would chant in a rhythmic, sing-song cadence, weaving the origins of the universe into the material of their small mountain group. However what struck me most wasn’t his voice—it was his silence.

Because the digital camera rolled, he sat in stillness. The wind whispered via the bushes. The river murmured its everlasting tune. In that quiet, there was one thing deeper than speech, one thing that pulsed with which means.

Later, once I performed the footage for a colleague, they requested, “However what’s he saying?”

I needed to reply, All the things.

Listening Past Phrases

In the event you’ve ever felt just like the world strikes too quick, like individuals are talking over one another as a substitute of actually listening to, then you definately already know the way uncommon true listening is. We reside in a time when everybody desires to be heard, however few know methods to pay attention.

Listening—actual listening—isn’t nearly listening to phrases. It’s about feeling presence. It’s about noticing what isn’t being stated. It’s about sensing the burden behind somebody’s silence, the emotion of their breath earlier than they converse.

I didn’t all the time know methods to pay attention this fashion. In my early years as a filmmaker, I centered on what was seen—the shot, the framing, the dialogue. However over time, I spotted that essentially the most highly effective moments weren’t all the time what was stated aloud. It was the look between two individuals who had identified one another perpetually. It was the best way somebody’s arms trembled earlier than telling a troublesome story. It was the pause between sentences, the place one thing unstated begged to be understood.

This sort of listening—deep listening—is a talent, similar to every other. And like several talent, it may be practiced. It requires persistence. It requires presence. And it requires a willingness to be quiet your self, to let go of the necessity to reply, clarify, or management the dialog.

The Silence That Speaks

There’s an previous educating in Nada Yoga, the yoga of sound, that claims silence isn’t an absence, however a vibration. It’s a resonance that permits which means to unfold.

I’ve felt this within the enhancing room, chopping collectively scenes, realizing that what strikes folks isn’t the dialogue however the areas between it—the quiet earlier than the revelation, the second of stillness earlier than the reality lands. I’ve felt it in music, when a musician permits a word to fade simply lengthy sufficient for it to sink into the listener’s bones.

And I’ve felt it in life, in conversations the place somebody shares one thing so uncooked, so deeply private, that every one you are able to do is sit with them in silence.

That silence isn’t empty. It is filled with acknowledgment, of understanding, of respect.

The Energy of Presence

One of many best challenges I confronted in my work was convincing people who this sort of data—this capacity to sit down with silence, to note, to be current—is simply as useful as details and figures, as theories and evaluation.

Academia, the place I spent a lot of my life, doesn’t all the time acknowledge the sort of data that’s felt greater than written. The sort of scholarship that comes via movie, via sound, via expertise. There, data is measured in citations, in publications, in issues that may be counted. However how do you depend a pause? How do you measure the influence of a shared silence?

I’ve spent years making an attempt to advocate for a broader understanding of what it means to know one thing. To know that presence—the flexibility to be totally right here, totally conscious—is its personal sort of intelligence.

And right here’s what I need you to know: You don’t should be a filmmaker or a scholar to develop this talent. You don’t should journey to distant mountains or sit in lengthy hours of meditation. You simply have to begin paying consideration.

Pay attention Deeply

If you wish to be taught to pay attention—to actually pay attention—do that:

1. Pause earlier than responding.

Subsequent time somebody speaks to you, don’t rush to fill the house. Let their phrases settle. Discover what else is there—their physique language, their expression, what they aren’t saying.

2. Pay attention with out planning your reply.

Too typically, we solely half-listen as a result of we’re already eager about what we’ll say subsequent. As an alternative, strive simply absorbing what’s being stated. Let the response come naturally.

3. Take note of the silences.

In music, the rests are simply as necessary because the notes. In dialog, the pauses carry which means. Discover what occurs in these areas.

4. Be snug with not figuring out.

Among the most profound moments in life don’t include clear solutions. Be open to sitting with uncertainty.

5. Observe with sound.

Spend time listening to the world round you—actually listening. Shut your eyes. Discover what number of layers of sound exist directly. The wind. The hum of a distant automotive. The rhythm of your individual respiratory.

The extra you develop your capacity to pay attention, the extra you’ll perceive—not nearly others, however about your self.

A Totally different Sort of Understanding

I write this now, not as a name to arms, however as an invite.

To the artists, the thinkers, those who really feel deeply however don’t all the time have the phrases—know that there’s a place for you. There’s worth in the best way you expertise the world.

You don’t have to elucidate every little thing. You don’t should put all of it into phrases.

Generally, essentially the most highly effective issues we all know—the issues that change us—exist within the house between phrases.

And in the event you ever end up doubting whether or not your approach of seeing, of listening, of feeling has a spot on this world, keep in mind this:

Among the best knowledge isn’t spoken.

Among the strongest messages are by no means written.

And generally, one of the best ways to grasp is to easily be current.