"Discover the beauty in silence"

Read full article discover the beauty in silence (Wellbeing magazine)

Extract : "The health benefits of silence

Research, mostly done on the effects of meditation and silent prayer, is showing that silence is not only beneficial for your physical, mental and emotional health but critical.
Dr Herbert Benson, an authority on the mind’s ability to affect physical health, coined the term “relaxation response” to describe the physiological state your body is in when you are calm and relaxed but not sleeping. It’s the opposite of the fight-or-flight response that triggers the release of stress hormones cortisol and adrenalin and has been shown to have a direct beneficial effect on your health.
People who meditate or pray regularly have been shown to reap a number of significant health benefits, from lowered blood pressure to increased immunity and fertility. Neurological imaging studies from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire suggest that the “normal resting state of the brain is a silent current of thoughts, images and memories that is not induced by sensory input or intentional reasoning, but emerges spontaneously from within”.

It has been shown that we have about 80,000 thoughts a day — where in this onslaught do you have time for silence?

Dr Helen E Lees, a research fellow in the Faculty of Education and Theology at York St John University in England and author of Silence in Schools, writes that more and more schools are now incorporating quiet times into the daily schedules of students. This has had a great impact on students’ learning and behaviour with reports that “it calms, focuses and enlivens the pupils”. Silence used to have negative and coercive aspects in schools but is now used as a positive educational tool. Some schools even provide sanctuary rooms or buildings where children can go to be still and silent as a restorative tool.
When you connect with nature in silence you begin the process of healing and rebalancing all bodily systems, from the hormonal to the neurological and cardiovascular as well as the immune system. This in turn benefits you emotionally and mentally, giving an overall sense of wellbeing.

Recognised health benefits

The proven health benefits of silence are that it:

• lowers blood pressure
• reduces anxiety
• increases immunity
• lowers cortisol and adrenalin
• reduces pain
• increases energy
• increases concentration and mental clarity
• increases ability to deal with emotional issues
• improves sleep
• improves fertility"