WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME IT WAS TRULY QUIET AROUND YOU?
We don’t mean simply having the TV turned off. We mean those moments when your phone wasn’t pinging, there was no music playing in the background, you weren’t listening to a podcast while walking, you weren’t scrolling through social media between tasks, and no one expected an immediate reply from you.
You simply were. For a few minutes, without anything trying to capture your attention.
If you find it difficult to remember a moment like that, you’re probably not alone.
IT’S NOT JUST THE WORLD THAT HAS BECOME NOISIER. OUR MINDS HAVE TOO.
Most of us now spend our days being exposed to an almost constant stream of stimuli.
We wake up, and often reach for our phones before we’ve even properly gotten out of bed.
Messages, emails, news, notifications, videos. More messages while we work. A quick scroll over lunch. Checking our phones while we wait. Music or a podcast while travelling. Then, in the evening, another episode of a series, a few more videos, or “just five minutes” on social media.
In the past, our days were full of small empty spaces.
We had to wait for the bus. We stood in line. We walked somewhere. We looked out of the window. We cooked. Before falling asleep, we lay in the dark for a few minutes.
Today, it’s easy to fill even these little gaps.
And perhaps that is one of the reasons why we long for silence so much.
Because it may not be the volume itself that exhausts us, but the fact that our attention is almost constantly being asked to respond to something.
WHEN OUR BRAINS ARE “SWITCHING” ALL DAY LONG
A single notification doesn’t seem like much. Neither does one message. Nor does a quick glance at an email.
The thing is, an average day isn’t made up of just one such moment.
We switch back and forth again and again: work, phone, conversation, message, task, news, video, another task. Our attention jumps from one thing to another, then back again.
At the same time, we often feel that we are resting when we finally sit down with our phones. Our bodies may indeed be doing very little – but our minds are still processing images, text, sounds, and information.
That’s why we can find ourselves in the strange situation where we’ve “done nothing” all evening, yet we don’t feel any more rested.
From this perspective, silence is not simply the absence of sound.
It is a reduction in stimulation.
It is that state in which, for a few minutes, you don’t have to decide what to click on, what to reply to, what to look at, what to read, what matters, or what comes next.
INTERESTINGLY, NATURE ISN’T ACTUALLY SILENT EITHER
If you go out into a forest, a meadow, or even a large garden, you are actually surrounded by countless sounds.
Birds are singing. Leaves are rustling. The wind is blowing. Insects are buzzing. Somewhere, an animal stirs. A branch cracks beneath your feet.
And yet we say:
“It’s so quiet.”
Perhaps because it is an entirely different kind of noise.
Birdsong doesn’t ask for a response.
The wind doesn’t send notifications.
Rustling leaves don’t want you to click on them.
A cow isn’t trying to hold your attention for the next thirty seconds.
Something is always happening around us in nature too, but far fewer things demand an immediate response from us.
That is why it can feel so unusual for someone coming from a city to suddenly spend an extended period of time in a natural environment.
Nothing particularly spectacular may happen.
And perhaps that is precisely the point.
SILENCE CAN EVEN FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AT FIRST
There is, however, something we talk about less often.
Silence is not pleasant for everyone at first.
When external stimuli disappear, we suddenly begin to hear more clearly what was there all along: our own thoughts.
Unfinished things come to mind: conversations, tasks, questions. Sometimes feelings surface too—feelings that are easier to push aside during a busy day.
And in those moments, we may almost automatically reach for our phones.
I’ll just check something.
I’ll just put on some music.
I’ll just message someone.
Not because we truly need to, but because we have become unaccustomed to moments that don’t need to be filled with something.
But if we don’t immediately fill that empty space, something interesting may begin to happen after a while.
We no longer need to occupy every minute.
We can simply walk. Look at the trees. Sit somewhere. Watch an animal. Notice the light, the scents, the air.
And our thoughts may slowly begin to settle into place without us consciously trying to “organise” them.
COULD IT BE THAT WE DON’T NEED MORE REST, BUT LESS STIMULATION?
When we feel tired, we often try to recover by adding yet another activity:
We travel somewhere. We go sightseeing. We make plans. We look for a restaurant. We take photos. We share them.
And in the end, we arrive home having had countless experiences—yet we may not actually feel any more rested.
Perhaps that is why something that, at first glance, seems like almost nothing is becoming increasingly valuable: spending some time without too much happening to us.
You don’t have to fill every minute of every trip.
It’s okay to leave time for a walk with no particular destination.
It’s okay to sit on a bench and do nothing for ten minutes.
It’s okay if you don’t take twenty photos one evening.
And it’s okay to simply watch the sun go down sometimes.
IN KRISHNA VALLEY, EVEN SILENCE HAS ITS OWN SOUNDS
Krishna Valley is not a silent place either.
In the morning, you can hear birds. You may encounter cows, other people, and those working in the gardens. The wind blows through the trees, insects buzz in summer, and in autumn, dry leaves rustle beneath your feet.
And yet, when our guests talk about what it was like to spend a few days here, many of them mention the silence, the peace, the closeness to nature, and the opportunity to slow down and find stillness.
Perhaps because the sounds that surround you here are different.
And so is the rhythm of the day.
If you come for several days, you don’t have to squeeze everything into a single visit. You have time to walk. To sit somewhere. To return to a place you liked. To wake up in the morning knowing you don’t have to rush off somewhere straight away.
You don’t need to be spiritual.
You don’t need to meditate.
And nothing extraordinary needs to happen.
Sometimes, simply having a little less going on can make a surprisingly big difference.
TRY IT: 30 MINUTES WITHOUT FILLING THE TIME WITH ANYTHING
You don’t need to go on a retreat to do this. You can start today.
Go for a 30-minute walk and keep your phone in your pocket!
Don’t listen to music or a podcast. Don’t make any phone calls. Don’t take photos. Don’t try to solve a problem while you walk.
Just walk.
Notice what happens.
You may feel bored for the first five minutes.
You may suddenly remember ten things you need to take care of.
You may instinctively reach for your phone.
But give yourself thirty minutes.
Notice your surroundings. The sounds. The air. The light. Your own thoughts.
And notice what it feels like when, for a little while, nothing is asking anything of you.
PERHAPS THIS IS WHY WE LONG FOR SILENCE SO MUCH
Perhaps it’s not because we want to escape from the world.
Maybe there are simply too few moments left in our lives when no one and nothing is trying to capture our attention.
Silence creates space. Space to notice what is around us. Space for our thoughts not to have to compete with a constant stream of new stimuli. And sometimes, space to hear ourselves again.
Perhaps what is strange is not that we long for silence so much, but that we allow ourselves to experience it so rarely.
GIVE IT A TRY YOURSELF!
If you would like to experience what it feels like to spend a few days at a slower pace, close to nature, you don’t need to plan something for every minute of your stay in Krishna Valley. There can be time to walk, to stop, to observe – or simply to be here.
And if you feel that a few days like this would do you good too, we warmly welcome you to Krishna Valley and our guesthouses.
Hare Krishna!
With love,
The Krishna Valley Guesthouse Team
