How did it go?  Did you spend some time opening the door to silence?  Or, if you are already spending time with silence each day, did you notice other places and times silence opens to you?

Many people who decide to “give silence a try” are almost immediately frustrated when they encounter what seems to be constant noise, thoughts and images on the inside.  It might be easy to turn off a TV or radio or mp3 but quieting the internal noise proves to be much harder.  Frustration builds when we attempt to stop this internal noise and the noise either gets louder or the number of thoughts seem to increase each time we try to stop one thought.

Many counsel that we not try to stop any of the internal noises but let them go.  Rather than attending to the noises and giving them our attention, we do not give our attention to that noise.  We don’t try to push anything away, we don’t try to not hear the noises, we just let them float by and do not go after them.

It often helps to have something to bring us back to our intention to be silent.  This might be a word or even an object that has no power in itself other than it signifies to you, your intention to be silent.  By gently repeating the word or gently toughing the object, you call yourself to silence without struggle or effort.

See, if as you spend time with silence, you can let the thoughts, images and noises go, and rest in the deeper silence.