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Do you spend time in silence everyday as a means to refresh your mind?

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  • 04-07-2014 8:22pm
    #1
    lazybones32
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,647 ✭✭✭


    I don't mean 'not talking' but actually trying to silence the chattering of the mind. Call it what you will but do you do it?

    Inspired by this... "A properly kept silence is a beautiful thing; it is nothing less than the father of very wise thoughts" - Diodicus


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    #2
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    I wonder to what extent sleep was intended "to refresh your mind?" There is a body of research hypothesizing that sleep allows for memory encoding, consolidation, reconsolidation, and brain plasticity in Matthew P. Walker and Robert Stickgold (2006), Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 57: 139-166.


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    #3
    Joe Doe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 559 ✭✭✭Joe Doe


    A fair few people 'passed away' last week from lack of sleep in China - due to watching too many live soccer ball games of the worldly cup' (time differences etc).
    Many (Eastern) folks believe sleep allows for connection to the 'source', a bit like a check-in.

    OP is maybe referring to Meditation in one of it's various forms ala: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057243523


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    #4
    dizzymenace
    Registered Users Posts: 135 ✭✭dizzymenace


    i'm not sure what you mean. silencing thoughts of stress and worry is surely a good thing but other thoughts such as that of a runners high (where thoughts bounce around your head like rubber balls "i like these shoes, oh look a cat, gotta buy carrots" where thoughts lead onto each other like dominoes) is a healthy way to think and aswell as deeper thoughts and queries, questioning the universe, society, concepts and ideas is how we better the world "great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people" i'm sure if you are a great mind (in the context of this quote) you wouldn't feel the urge to silence your mind

    this is just my view, i'm sure another way of looking at it is that wiping your mind clean allows for new ideas, a whiteboard full of writing would be a suitable example.


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    #5
    lazybones32
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,647 ✭✭✭lazybones32


    Sleep allows the body to rest and repair itself and also allows for the subconscious to assimilate and 'deal with' what it has experienced throughout the day (isn't that what dreams are about?).

    I'm not attempting to empty my mind or stop thinking, rather quieting it from its ceaseless chatter and allow it some silence from the bombardment it receives from multiple sources.


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    #6
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    Although certain forms of meditation may claim that thought can be suspended, I wonder if it is; rather, does such meditation focus on something in particular rather than completely suspending thought?

    For example, the "do" of taekwondo suggests that a moment of quiet reflection before a workout session may have merit. In a sense the mind is cleared when doing this, but also highly focused, often visualising what is to follow (e.g., focused on TKD, leaving all else in someone's life aside).


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    #7
    lazybones32
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,647 ✭✭✭lazybones32


    That would be a scary thing...to think about nothing! According to a certain philosopher, we would cease to be if we cease to think. Would it even be possible for the mind not to occupy itself with something?


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    #8
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    A different perspective from mediation may be useful at this point. Immanuel Kant in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime allows for a person to enjoy art for art sake. For example, visit an art museum, sit before a painting, clear one's mind of all else, and become one with the artistry.


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    #9
    lazybones32
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,647 ✭✭✭lazybones32


    Is that not another form of empathy? Entering the 'mind' of the artist to see what they're trying to show you? what they are conveying...

    I like to watch the night skies when the cloud-cover is less than total and the pleasure, the relaxation and joy I experience, I would class as recreation. It's the bats, the owls, the satellites, the sky and I. Even though my mind is serene and thoughts flow differently after time spent this way, the experience and effects are completely different to what occurs in silence.


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    #10
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    lazybones32 wrote: »
    Is that not another form of empathy? Entering the 'mind' of the artist to see what they're trying to show you? what they are conveying...
    Perhaps. Immanuel Kant did not limit the sublime and beautiful to empathy with artist. The subjective experience of art may occur without reference to the artist's intended meaning.
    lazybones32 wrote: »
    I like to watch the night skies when the cloud-cover is less than total and the pleasure, the relaxation and joy I experience, I would class as recreation. It's the bats, the owls, the satellites, the sky and I. Even though my mind is serene and thoughts flow differently after time spent this way, the experience and effects are completely different to what occurs in silence.
    Immanuel Kant also discussed this in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime.


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    #11
    Torakx
    Registered Users Posts: 3,831 ✭✭✭Torakx


    Personally I don't tend to need silence to get that feeling of refreshment. Sometimes some classical music will help me switch off.
    I consider also jogging as a form of meditation for me. Where I just do and don't think as much.
    Although warming up laps I am still thinking about the most random things :D
    Switching off is very difficult for me, because I really really enjoy thinking about things. So in a way some time alone to chill and ponder my own questions and thoughts feels very refreshing too.
    Being an introvert I see this as a dopamine fix. The equivalent to the extraverted way socializing or getting thrills.

    So my meditation in my mind takes on many forms.
    I might even consider intense shooter games I play as meditation, as I focus on that and don't often think about many other things. This focusing in on activities helps me to delay this chatter you mentioned.

    I was always under the impression that to mediatate on something, is to think about it.
    Or does that really mean to let it lie in the unconscious and not consciously think about it?

    Oh, one reason I mayenjoy "meditating" to music or doing something , could be due to having tinnitus and constantly hearing a high pitched ringing. That is a lot of chatter to deal with 24/7, so I actually never get any silence.
    Possibly why I enjoy my mind being distracted. It is usually only when I think about the rigning that I acknowledge it and hear it truly.
    If I'm thinking about stuff all the time, this ringing for the most part isn't really paid attention to.


    "A properly kept silence is a beautiful thing; it is nothing less than the father of very wise thoughts"
    I think this silence mentioned, is not necessarily a lack of sound. More a silence of the mind.
    And a properly kept "silence of the mind" is indeed the father of wise thoughts. Mostly I think that is true, because the unconscious mind has much more potential compared to the conscious mind.


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    #12
    Call Me Jimmy
    Registered Users Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    My understanding is that meditation is about the separation from the thoughts (whether it really happens or is just further imagination I don't know but the results coming through scientific research show positive influences on the brain). For me, when I'm thinking a thought and I have no awareness other than the thought itself (you know when you think about something for a minute or two and then you snap back and notice say the computer screen in front of you again), so involved in the thinking that the senses are blinded. That for me is not a restorative or relaxing form of thought.

    But I have experienced times where there is seperation, the thoughts can be going at any pace and be about anything but you're still fully there seeing clearly but are not at the mercy of their content. It's like doing two things at once, the thoughts are continuous in the background, definitely there, but it's as if 'you' are not thinking them. Experiencing them as noise like a car going by outside your house - you definitely hear it and it gets louder and quieter but you are not the engine of the car. Not sure if that makes sense.


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    #13
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    lazybones32 wrote: »
    Inspired by this... "A properly kept silence is a beautiful thing; it is nothing less than the father of very wise thoughts" - Diodicus
    "The Sound Of Silence" (Simon & Garfunkel):

    "And in the naked light I saw
    Ten thousand people, maybe more.
    People talking without speaking,
    People hearing without listening,
    People writing songs that voices never share
    And no one dared
    Disturb the sound of silence."


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    #14
    gormdubhgorm
    Registered Users Posts: 18,312 ✭✭✭✭gormdubhgorm


    For me this is what swimming was invented for. Can completely switch off just you and the water.

    Guff about stuff, and stuff about guff.



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    #15
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,223 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    gormdubhgorm wrote: »
    For me this is what swimming was invented for. Can completely switch off just you and the water.
    Yes, when I swim many laps the same occurs for me.


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    #16
    countrynosebag
    Registered Users Posts: 147 ✭✭countrynosebag


    I was thinking about all this.
    I need silence very much and feel out-of-kilter without it. The busyness of constant chatter is extremely wearing. I have a guest and have had nearly a week of it, I feel entirely frazzled.
    I hope that my silences are not to gain wise thoughts. I am not sure I would get any if I chose to chase them in that manner. It would not be a form of rest or meditation, but stressed activity to force something that May or may not come anyway.
    The idea of being lost in a painting is appealing to an extent. I think this too could become an activity that because of trying to do this consciously would not be the restful and relaxing silence I require. I have found I do spend a lot of time, the whole day in a gallery anyway and it is because it takes me a long time to digest the art, maybe the beauty, the composition, the unusual, the quirky, in fact each piece has a time allotted but I do linger a long time to absorb a piece that I am smitten with. I think in becoming lost in those moments and that art, just unaware of anything else is what I understand by that.
    I have noticed that silence is to do with sound as well as the feeling, both at the time and afterwards. Last night after an unusually hot day it was still oppressive, sky not clear and it was rather rather a listlessness than a restful or energising silence. The birds, animals and insects were unusually quiet it seemed that all felt oppressed not rested.
    There are clear, bright nights where there is silence but often punctuated by sounds of other living things,general activity but the air is pure and energising, especially after rain, but has a a restful quality too.
    I wonder if sound, the carrying of airwaves and vibration within the inner air is then to do with atmospherics too.
    Silence may be to do with the aware then unaware for me. When I do stop the monkey mind of thought and gently steer towards nothingness (assuming this is possible) I have my best silences in my most unaware moments. It seems I have been sitting a moment but then it may be an hour. I think debate on meditation may be around that or day dreaming and those differences.


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    #17
    Gary L
    Registered Users Posts: 208 ✭✭Gary L


    dizzymenace wrote: »
    "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people"
    I'm sure if you are a great mind (in the context of this quote) you wouldn't feel the urge to silence your mind

    I'd counter this with a recent quote from Sam Harris- " It really doesn't matter if your mind is wandering over current problems in mathemathical logic or cancer research. If you're thinking without recognizing that you're thinking, you are confused about who and what you are.
    Call Me Jimmy wrote: »
    My understanding is that meditation is about the separation from the thoughts.
    For me, when I'm thinking a thought and I have no awareness other than the thought itself (you know when you think about something for a minute or two and then you snap back and notice say the computer screen in front of you again), so involved in the thinking that the senses are blinded. That for me is not a restorative or relaxing form of thought.
    This.


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