Deck to Page #27
Deck: Mindful Souls – Affirmation Card Deck
Card #37: Cherish Silence
Affirmation: I embrace silence as my companion. Within it, I discover not emptiness but empathy for others, self-awareness, and genuine wisdom.
Today’s Challenge: Make sure you listen more than you speak.
Silence can be uncomfortable.
Think about the last time you were having a conversation and no one said anything for a few seconds.
Did you let the silence sit there?
Or did you immediately try to fill it?
I think most of us have become fairly good at filling empty spaces. We talk. We ask another question. We change the subject. We reach for our phones. We turn on the television. We put on music. We find something, anything, to keep ourselves from sitting in silence for too long.
That is why this week’s card caught my attention.
Cherish Silence.
Not tolerate it.
Not survive it.
Cherish it.
The affirmation reminds me that silence isn’t necessarily empty space. Sometimes it is where we finally have enough room to notice what is happening around us and within us.
That becomes especially important when we are with another person.
How often do we truly listen?
I don’t mean being quiet while someone else is talking. There is a difference.
Sometimes we’re technically listening, but inside our heads we’re already preparing our response. We’re thinking about the advice we’re going to give. We’re remembering a similar experience we’ve had. We’re deciding whether we agree or disagree.
Sometimes we interrupt because we’re excited.
“That happened to me too!”
Sometimes we genuinely want to help, so we jump immediately into problem-solving mode.
“Have you tried this?”
“You should…”
“Here’s what I would do…”
None of those responses necessarily come from a bad place. In fact, they often come from a desire to connect.
But sometimes connection requires something else.
Silence.
Maybe the person sitting across from us doesn’t need us to solve anything.
Maybe they haven’t even finished figuring out what they’re trying to say.
Maybe that little bit of silence after their sentence is exactly what they need to find the courage to say the next one.
I have learned through conversations with people that there is often more underneath the first answer.
If I rush to fill the space, I may never hear it.
There is something powerful about allowing another person enough room to keep going. To think. To feel. To decide whether they want to share another layer of themselves.
Silence can say:
I’m still here.
I’m listening.
You don’t have to hurry.
You don’t have to make this comfortable for me.
And perhaps that is where the empathy mentioned on this card begins.
But silence doesn’t only teach us about other people.
It teaches us about ourselves.
When we aren’t talking, explaining, defending, advising, entertaining, or distracting ourselves, we have an opportunity to notice our own thoughts.
Why did that comment bother me?
Why am I so eager to respond?
Why do I feel the need to fix this?
Am I listening because I want to understand, or am I waiting for my turn to speak?
Those aren’t always comfortable questions.
But perhaps that is where the wisdom comes in.
Silence can also be something we practice when no one else is around.
We live with so much noise, not just the sounds around us, but the constant stream of information, notifications, conversations, television, music, and thoughts competing for our attention.
Choosing silence can become its own form of mindfulness.
Maybe it’s sitting quietly for five or ten minutes and simply noticing your breath. Maybe it’s meditation or prayer. Maybe it’s taking a walk without headphones and paying attention to the sounds that are already there—the birds, the wind, your footsteps, your own breathing.
Silence can also create space for journaling.
There is something about sitting with a blank page when nothing else is competing for your attention. You might begin with a simple question: What am I noticing right now? Then allow yourself to write without worrying about where the answer is going.
Sometimes we don’t know what we’re thinking or feeling until we become quiet enough to hear it.
And mindfulness doesn’t necessarily require sitting cross-legged in a perfectly peaceful room with an empty mind. It can simply mean intentionally creating a few moments when we aren’t trying to consume, respond, accomplish, or distract ourselves.
Just being present.
Perhaps that is another way to cherish silence, not as something empty that needs to be filled, but as time we intentionally give ourselves.
Time to meditate.
Time to reflect.
Time to journal.
Time to notice.
Time to simply be.
Because just as silence gives another person room to tell us something we might otherwise miss, it can give us the room to hear something within ourselves that we’ve been too busy, or too surrounded by noise, to notice.
Today’s challenge is simple: listen more than you speak.
And maybe that means listening not only to the person in front of us, but also to what surfaces when we become quiet ourselves.
I think I’ll take it one step further.
The next time there is a pause in a conversation, I want to resist the urge to immediately fill it.
I’ll give the other person another few seconds.
Maybe they’ll say something.
Maybe they won’t.
Either way, I’ll practice being comfortable enough to let the silence exist.
Because silence isn’t always the absence of something.
Sometimes it is the space where something finally has a chance to appear.
A Few Questions to Consider:
- How comfortable are you with silence?
- Do you listen to understand, or sometimes listen while preparing your response?
- When someone shares a problem, is your first instinct to listen or to fix it?
- What might someone tell you if you gave them a little more space to continue?
- What do you notice about yourself when everything around you becomes quiet?
This week, perhaps we can all talk a little less, listen a little longer, and see what we hear in the silence.
Theresa
Flexible Being
Empowering Your Journey to Healing, Clarity, and Self-Discovery.
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Theresa Martinez-Shapiro
Theresa Martinez-Shapiro is the founder of Flexible Being, a Reiki Master, Certified Oracle Guide, intuitive mentor, and writer based in Stockton, California. Through Musings of a Flexible Being, she explores healing, mindfulness, relationships, intuition, and personal growth with a grounded yet spiritual approach.
