Most of us live in a world filled up with sounds that don't necessarily come from Nature, and also with sounds running through our minds with some constancy.  One of the practices I've engaged over the years has been to allow myself time in both an internal and external silence, when possible.  There are times, when walking through Central Park, everything is still.  Especially in winter, after a snowfall, the environment around me may be filled with a profound and pervasive silence and stillness.  At those rare moments when there are no other people around, I feel enfolded in a world that almost seems to be holding its breath, or breathing so quietly and deeply that it radiates an inherent stillness that, then, fills me with a deep, internal quiet.

Then, there are times at home when the sounds of the city quiet down - often in the middle of the night when I happen to awaken for one reason or another - and I soak in the silence all around me.  Even the noises that are usual in my apartment building are quiet.  The elevators aren't running, no water is running in some other apartment, and all is still.

There are also the times I seek an inner quiet during my times of meditation or attunement, when I simply open to the silence and notice what I find there.  Sometimes I encounter a profound stillness and just spend time soaking in the experience.  At other times, the silence offers a deeper conversation with myself, where I can hear - or sense - things that are normally drowned out in the noise of everyday life.

For this week's experiment, I invite you to explore more deeply your relationship with stillness and silence.  They are great gifts to your busy life, and often open you to a conscious awareness of elements of your experience that mostly exist under the radar of your everyday consciousness.

Because this is an invitation into the stillness and into the silence, there isn't any agenda other than offering yourself time to do nothing but listen to the quiet.  Within that listening, awareness of some kind may emerge, but that's not the goal.  The goal is to explore how it is for you to simply be present to stillness and silence.  For some people, this is a welcomed retreat from the busy-ness of everyday life and/or a way to feel more deeply connected to their underlying wisdom.

On the other hand, if you're one of those people who go inside and find anxiety or discomfort, allow yourself to engage this experiment in a different way.  Give yourself permission to find something in your environment that nourishes you when you see it.  Then, allow your awareness to simply rest there, without filling yourself up with lots of thoughts or activities.  Allow the experiment to be about just being present to what's in front of you without having to do anything else.  Then, you might notice some unexpected sensations of internal comfort or ease.  If you do, allow them to be there and then go back to looking at whatever it is that has been the focus of your attention.  If you don't have this kind of sensation emerge, that's fine, too.  The experiment is an invitation to choose to focus on something you enjoy seeing - or feeling, if you're exploring texture - and to notice how that experience may allow you to touch into some kind of quiet that is a positive experience for you.

As with all the experiments, please remember to be gentle with yourself and to bring along curiosity as your primary companion.  There's no right answer here - no right way to do the experiment or right way to move through it.  It's an invitation to explore your relationship with stillness and silence, and to discover the potential gifts that may await you when you deepen your skill of being able to spend time communing with these states of being.

And, for those of you for whom stillness and silence are anything but relaxing and nourishing, give yourself permission to discover that being present to pleasing objects or elements in your living space may offer a kind of internal quiet that offers support and nourishment in some way that is can become a surprising gift to you.

The key here is to discover what works for you, in terms of finding quiet time within the context of a busy life.  It's also a way to experience how all the noise we generate - externally and internally - serves to take us away from an awareness of our own, ever-present, deep wisdom.