Never Empty and Almost Never Still

 

Photo by the author

Not being able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction but we don’t realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. — Eckhart Tolle

Green Bank, West Virginia, population around 150, has earned the moniker, “The Quietest Town in America.” It got that name by being located within the National Radio Quiet Zone (“Quiet Zone”) — a place where radio transmissions are restricted by law to facilitate scientific research (and military intelligence gathering). It’s also the location of the Green Bank Observatory — the first national radio astronomy observatory, founded in 1957. 

Electromagnetic “traffic” created by people crisscrosses almost every inch of inhabited areas. Where cell signals don’t reach from cell towers, repeaters and extenders are installed. WiFi is essentially ubiquitous in all major (and most minor) cities and towns.

The statement from Mr. Tolle above was made in 1997 in his book The Power of Now which predates pervasive modern technology by nearly two decades.

It’s true that since the advent radio, we’ve had the ability to fill out minds to the brim (and often to overflowing) with all imaginable content. When it was only radio, we had to rely on our imaginations to create pictures of the scenes that were described in so many radio programs.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and we’re practically force fed with content that’s as cheap as the winter is long in Yakutsk. 

Where has all the noise led us?

Most of us have come to accept the noise. Going back to Mr. Tolle’s statement, it’s been present for so long that we all accept that it’s just how things are, even going so far as to miss it in its absence. If our minds aren’t being invaded byt external stimuli, or filled by invitation, our thoughts race and wander; we often ruminate on the past and worry about the future.

In a recent article, psychologist and author, Karen Nimmo wrote a statement that I believe accurately describes the mental state of things for most of us.

“Our thoughts can’t always be trusted — not even those of people who consider themselves to be very, very clever.”

A line comes to mind from Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The Grinch, standing atop his mountain, looks down on Whoville, “That’s the one thing I hate! All the noise, noise, noise, noise!”

Karen Nimmo continues, “Thoughts are just things. They’re just passing (or racing) through. They’re good and bad, smart and dumb, right and wrong. They change and backflip and question themselves. They lie and deceive. They play games and tricks. They spend a lot of time in the dress-up box.”

We give a great deal of mental real estate to things of little consequence, like the insensitive and “tone deaf” thing your boss said during a meeting in reference to the plight of a coworker and the fairness of things or the endless prattle from the talking heads on the news.

What do we do about it?

The reality is that most of us afflicted by the “dreadful disease” will not devote the time or mental energy to get good at meditation and mindfulness. I’ve given a 10% effort to meditation a couple of times. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken hold and given me an avenue to quiet my mind.

Here are five practical things we can all do to lessen the “noise, noise, noise, noise” in our lives.

1. Limit screen time. I recently removed all social media apps from my phone, and only allow myself a five-minute check-in on Facebook each day. Candidly, I’m in dopamine withdrawals right now. I’ll let you know how I’m feeling in two weeks.
2. Take some deep breaths. I’m not talking about a fifteen- or even five-minute session of deep breathing techniques. I’m talking about two or three, feel-your-belly-expand kinds of breaths — slow in through the nose with a long exhale through the mouth. Simple, yet effective.
3. Get up and walk. I’ve made a habit of taking phone calls while walking. I’ve had a couple of days when I’m outside my office pacing the warehouse or walking around the business park for 45 minutes. If that’s not practical, put your phone away for 10 minutes on your lunch break and go move your body.
4. Read a book. Reading for the sake of reading is still a thing. I spent more than an hour today reading articles that seemed interesting on Medium, one of which was the inspiration for this article. Thank you Karen Nimmo.
5. Observe nature. Even in densely-packed metropolitan areas, opportunities to observe nature abound. Find a small plant or even a weed that seems to be thriving in an impossibly difficult environment. There’s a lot to be learned from the perseverance of nature.

It’s impossible for our minds to be quiet all the time. We don’t need to achieve the mental equivalent of the Quiet Zone; I don’t think it’s even useful to attempt that kind of mental state. What I do think is critical is for all of us to find at least a few moments in our busy, hectic, over-programmed, over-stimulated lives to find a few moments to enjoy the emptiness and stillness that come from momentarily removing all distractions.