Learning to Sit in Silence

Sometimes, when we’re uncomfortable—whether with a situation, ourselves, or our lives—it’s easier to fill the silence with noise than to simply sit and listen. While there’s nothing wrong with being social or surrounding ourselves with others, we have to be careful we’re not doing it to escape being alone with ourselves.

For many of us, the hardest thing to do is sit still and listen to our own voice—our own heart. The mind can trick you, but the heart rarely does.

There was a time in my life when I couldn’t be alone. Stillness felt unbearable. I see that same restlessness in others now—the need to be busy, to be distracted, to constantly be doing. But once you allow yourself to sit, to really sit, you begin the journey to true knowing. Knowing yourself. What you need. What you want. What makes you light up from within. What makes your heart radiate love—for others, and yes, for yourself too.

We cannot hear ourselves when the noise of the world is screaming at us—literally or figuratively. When we drown out our inner truth with distractions, with alcohol, with busyness, even with friends, it becomes impossible to really hear ourselves.

When I left Atlanta and moved to Florida years ago, it was excruciating. I had left behind everything I thought made my life full: the home I built, the friends I loved, the community I had grown in. I thought I was losing everything, but now I understand I was undergoing a necessary decluttering. Many of us reach a point where we need to strip things away to find ourselves again. Mine had to be drastic, though not everyone’s journey requires that kind of rupture.

I know people who can’t sit quietly—not even with themselves, not even with someone they love. And I get it. It’s scary. But it might also be the bravest thing you ever do: to sit still, to be alone, to listen. None of us knows what we’ll hear—but I can promise you this: if you have the courage to stop hiding behind distractions—alcohol, drugs, people, hobbies—you will find peace.

And you are not alone. What you discover will be more beautiful than what you imagine, and far richer than the life you’re currently trying to maintain.

They say we have two lives—the second begins when we realize we only have one. That moment, that awakening, is when your life truly begins. For the first time, you may be able to look at yourself clearly and realize: You are not all the things you were told, or even the things you’ve told yourself.

You are beautiful.

And before you is a life waiting to be discovered.

I’ll be waiting there.