Opción A - 3 · Inglés PAU Madrid Ordinaria (2ª lengua) 2019

Why We Need Silence

In a recent interview, journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates argued that remarkable thinkers and writers should get off Twitter. It wasn’t a critique of the 140/280-character medium or even the quality of the social media discourse in the age of fake news. It was a call to get beyond the noise. For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work requires something all too rare in modern life: quiet. He is in good company since Harry Potter’s creator J. K. Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson and psychiatrist Carl Jung all had periods of deep silence.

Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live. It is difficult to drop into deeper modes of listening and attention when we are constantly fixated on the verbal agenda: what to say next, what to write next, what to tweet next. However, it is in those deeper modes of attention that truly novel ideas are found.

Even incredibly busy people can cultivate periods of sustained quiet time. It is possible to hit reset by engaging in a silent practice of meditation or reflection, if you are able to close the office door, retreat to a park bench or find another quiet hideaway. You need not be an outdoors type to ditch the phone and go for a simple two-or-three-hour walk in nature. Immersion in nature can be the clearest option for improving creative thinking. Turn off your email for several hours or even a full day, or try “fasting” from news and entertainment. The world is getting louder. But silence is still accessible; it just takes commitment and creativity to cultivate it.

Adapted from: Talbot Zorn, J and L. Marz (2017) “Why We Need Silence,” Harvard Business Review 17 March 2017. <https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-busier-you-are-the-more-you-need-quiet-time>

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