In a recent episode of Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, she features Jesse Israel, a social entrepreneur and founder of the mass meditation movement known as “The Big Quiet.” Here is what Jesse had to say:
“We live in a culture that celebrates more-ness. We glorify being busy. For many of us, this constant noise is exhausting. But it wasn’t always like this. For the great majority of our time on earth, we lived in quieter times, in tribes. In fact, the amount of information that our tribal ancestors would process in their entire lifetime, is equivalent to the amount of information and input that we process in one single day today. That is a lot of noise. And the burden that it is creating on our bodies and on our minds is real.”
Israel brings to our attention that it doesn’t have to be this way. That although there is an expectation that we keep up, and we can often feel as though we are missing something if we don’t, we can also appreciate our need for the relaxation response, our comfort system, for quiet. (If there is one thing the pandemic has taught us, it is how to slow down.)
Now, perhaps we can add ‘seeking quiet’ to the list. Carving out time to simply sit in silence, for time of prayer or meditation, for ‘phone-free’ zones. He suggests incorporating just 60 seconds a day of absolute stillness into our daily routine. Just one minute a day to connect with quiet – to connect with our soul, to feel peace.
To listen to the full podcast (he guides us through a meditation): https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/own/oprahs-supersoul-conversations/e/68277283
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Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@benwhitephotography