Into the Silence (Encore)

Welcome to the joyful journey podcast. If you're looking for more clarity in your life, clarity of purpose or how to activate that purpose, and you are someone who wants to operate from your highest self to be a force for good, you know this world craves, then this is the show for you. I'm Anita Adams, your host and guide to finding clarity and creating a life you love. Let's tap into our inner wisdom, access our highest self and unleash joy. As we do this, we raise our vibration and heightened the collective consciousness. And that, my friend, is the joyful journey. Let's dive in. Hey, joyful journey. Here's Anita Adams here your host of the joyful journey podcast and today I want to talk about going into the silence. Before we dive into this topic, though, I'd like to shout out one of our listeners a spicy meatball 33 for your fabulous review who tells me I'm a natural thank you and says, I love this podcast. You're inspiring and your passion shines through. Thank you so much spicy meatball 33 I so appreciate you and I love your username. It puts a huge smile on my face. All right into the silence. We go. As an entrepreneur, and work from home mom for 20 plus years, finding moments of silence was a rarity. Life with the Addams Family was big, busy, and boisterous. Meditation was seldom on the agenda back then. And the idea of going for a walk in the woods by myself was almost laughable, who has time to meditate, and why on earth would I want to go for a walk by myself. That was an extremely foreign idea. As I've shared in other episodes, everything shifted when the pandemic hit, and to deal with my anxiety around all that was happening in the world. In my business with my family. I found myself walking the forest by myself every single day, a challenge that was issued by by business coach. And I fell in love with a silence. Because in that space, I began to hear the whispers of my heart, my soul voice and I began to understand who I really am. And what I really want. With that understanding grew a confidence, a deeper love and respect for self. And well, a lot of joy. Then I started this podcast and I tell you, my dear listener, go forth and walk in the woods and there you will find the answers to all you're looking for. There is absolute truth. In this statement, you will find your answers when you step away from the noise of your busy life and tap into the stillness within. However, I also recognize that what I'm asking you to do go for a walk by yourself in nature, may be extremely uncomfortable for a lot of people. What I've discovered is that this discomfort rests primarily in being in silence. So let's explore our feelings around silence and start by doing a quick assessment. On a scale of one to 10, with one being very uncomfortable being in silence to 10 being very comfortable and even craving silence. Where do you stand on the scale? What was the first number that popped into your head? If you landed on five or below, then going for a walk in nature by yourself without any music or other distractions filtering through your earbuds is a big ask, and it's unlikely to happen. If you landed on six or above, you are more likely to invest time in nature. But are you? Are you intentionally carving out time for this activity? How often do you do it? And how big of a priority is it for you? If you're in this group, we'll come back to you. First, we're going to explore what's potentially going on for those who landed in the five and below group and what you can do to increase your comfort of being in silence. If you fall into this group, I suspect when you were on your own, you fill the space with noise, be it listening to music, listening to a podcast or even just playing the TV in the background. For those of you who constantly fill the space with noise, are you aware that you are doing that or is it a subconscious Action a habit to turn on the radio, the news, the podcast, as soon as you get into the car or walk through the door at home, ask yourself why? Why do you want to fill the space with noise? Are you trying to avoid something? It's entirely possible that you simply love music and want to fill every waking moment with it, or you hunger for knowledge and have discovered the depth of resources available through podcasts and audiobooks. But there might be something else entirely going on. A friend of mine recently revealed and courageously so that she is uncomfortable with silence. Because she does not want to be alone with our thoughts, which often turn dark. I've come to understand that this is a common reason for avoiding the silence. Unfortunate unfortunately, those dark thoughts still have a way of seeping into our life, no matter how much noise fills the space, and they will hang over us like a turbulent cloud. The only way to truly dispel those negative thoughts and the energy they carry is to acknowledge them by being fully aware of their presence. The silence enables this awareness to build your comfort of being in silence. Start by carving out just five to 10 minutes a day for the silence in an environment that is comfortable, say in your living room, on your balcony or in your backyard. If sitting in silence is too much to ask then start by doing the dishes in silence or folding the laundry in silence or driving to work in silence. Eventually, the goal is to work our way up to being comfortable doing nothing for longer periods of time in silence, doing nothing but observing. Be the observer of all that's around you. Most importantly, observe how you feel. If dark thoughts come, imagine yourself as a third party non judgmental observer and treat those thoughts and accompanying feelings with curiosity. Ask why, why do I feel this way and further observe what emerges. Gently probe and knowledge, the feelings. I like to share a simple exercise you can do at this point one that has helped me immensely. Put one hand over your heart, one hand over your belly and say, I've got you repeat the statement a few times. I've got you. I've got you. The only thing you are doing here is being fully conscious of your feelings and accepting yourself lovingly. You're not trying to change anything you're not trying to deny, reject, suppress, argue, you are lovingly accepting what is if this exercise of sitting in silence, and being an observer of what is happening around you and with in you is triggering or too painful, then I would like to gently suggest that seeking professional guidance to release this pain would be a great idea. It takes courage to ask for help. And we all need it. Sometimes. We all need it. Once we start building our muscle of being comfortable in silence, the next step is to practice this in nature. Because as I've expressed before, nature is a portal to our highest self. One way of building our comfort level of being in nature on our own is to invite a like minded friend to go for a walk and take five to 10 minutes to walk in silence together. But with a little a little distance between you to avoid the temptation to speak. And then once again, pull out our observation skills to notice everything in our in our environment using all of our senses. What do you hear, see, smell, feel, taste even. And notice the feelings within as well be that curious observer. And these little ways we begin to build our comfort for being in silence and in the process. We make space for our sole voice to emerge.

Now if you identified as being a Six or above on our silence Comfort Scale, then your job is to find more opportunities to unities for solo silent time, be it in meditation, or doing the dishes without music or the TV playing, and carve out time to get into nature every day. Walk in the park, or around the neighborhood will suffice if you don't have easy access to a more wild environment, make this time a daily non negotiable. the busier you are, the more important it is to make that time to do this. Trust me on this. Better yet, take the 30 Day Challenge. I recently made an experience for yourself how stepping into nature every day for 30 days will transform your life. This is meant to be time on your own being present with your environment and yourself. You will feel calmer, more grounded, you'll become more productive. You'll find creative solutions to challenges you'll sleep better. And this is just the beginning. The list of benefits for being in nature to tap into the silence are vast. For in the silence, you will discover your strength. You will find the answers to all your questions and you will awaken thank you for joining me today my fellow joyful journeyers I look forward to next time. Thank you for joining me on the joyful journey podcast. If anything resonated for you from today's show, or if you are looking for more clarity in your life, clarity of purpose or how to activate that purpose, then head over to joyful journey.ca and become a member of our community. We'll start by sending you a free download of our three guiding principles to inner wisdom, which will give you a great foundation for finding the clarity you're seeking. And you'll become part of a growing community of people who are raising the collective consciousness. So head over to joyful journey.ca And I look forward to connecting with you directly