Do you give yourself the gift of silence at some point in your day? Or is every moment filled with external “noise” ~ words, email notifications, television, music? Are you able to turn down the volume or do you welcome the distractions as a way to avoid your “self”?

When we rush from one thing to another, jump from the keyboard to the phone and back again as we add yet another to do onto the never-ending task list, we miss the opportunity to stay in touch with us. Ironically, I hadn’t considered the healing quality of spending time in silence until I attended a drumming seminar.

While I loved learning the techniques of drumming, what impacted me the most was the instructor’s statement that “…music occurs in the silence between the notes.” I made an immediate connection to my training in cranial sacral therapy involving the concept of stillpoint. It is defined by author and cranial sacral practitioner Franklyn Sills as,

“a period of stillness in which tidal phenomena (of the cranial sacral fluid) become still…In stillness, there is revitalization.  Stillness is about reconnecting to and expressing our most inherent resources.”[1]

Sills states that facilitating a Client to stillpoint assists them in making…

“…an inherent interconnection to life as a whole” and “[w]ithin the stillness here, patients may even connect to archetypal forms and energies.”[2]

If stillpoint is all of this, then consider the healing that takes place in the silence – the silence between words, the stillness between techniques, the quiet between notes or beats. If music occurs in the space between notes and healing occurs in the quiet of stillpoint, then new awareness, integration of new concepts and emotional healing can take place in silence between words. You cannot set goals and create your vision in a mind full of clutter and white noise.

On the surface, silence can seem to be about nothing. Yet if we adopt the drumming instructor’s approach, then silence is about everything and without it we are unable to hear the individual notes. Words become a constant noise that fills our mind, our head, our hearts and the world around us. One cannot heal in the midst of noise – it is too distracting and takes too much energy to block out. One can heal in silence.

Amid the hustle of the beginning of a New Year, consider treating yourself to a moment of silence. Take a moment to re-introduce yourself to you. Check in and notice what is giving you joy and where you feel out of balance. With this awareness, you can make a plan to choose activities and goals that contribute to living a balanced, fulfilling life.


[1] Sills, Franklyn, Cranial Sacral Biodynamics, Vol. 1, North Atlantic Books, 2001, Page 125.

[2] Ibid., Page 425.

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