Silence & The Daily Practice of Returning Home

Catalina Goerke

Think of an old penny, all worn out by use and time. Even if you can’t see its original splendor, it doesn‘t mean that its nature has changed. Just like the penny, your most authentic Self awaits under the many layers of your personality, which found its form through the process of picking up social beliefs, fragments of your past, a truckload of self-judgment and a rebellious train of thought that tries to overpower the voice of your inner wisdom.

Silence is the language of nature.

All you see around you was perfectly created in Silence, allowing every molecule and every atom to find its place. We, as part of nature, were also created in and by Silence, so to be able to communicate with the most profound essence of our being; we need to become fluent in its language. The daily practice of Silence has taken many names. We can find it disguised in labels as meditation, mindfulness, prayer and many others. But truthfully, to communicate with the profound wisdom we all inhabit, all we need is to step away from noise and distractions and sit with ourselves, in Silence.

If you’re looking to begin a daily practice, here you’ll find a simple technique, that takes hardly any time, and can be done anywhere in seven steps:

1. Find a quiet place

Give yourself ten minutes to sit with yourself in Silence.

2. Breathing Technique

Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four. Hold your breath for a count of four. Exhale completely through your mouth, to a mental count of eight. Short inhalation, long and slow exhalation. Practice this exercise 3 times.

3. Focus your attention

Close your eyes and choose a place where you will focus your attention while breathing normally. Some of the traditional places are: the tip of the nose, the top of the head or the base of the spine. The closer you get to stillness, the deeper you’ll be able to travel between the layers of your busy mind. Visualize this process as going down a ladder to the center of you.

4. Observe the clouds

Having chosen the place of your attention and now breathing slowly, observe your thoughts as passing clouds. Hold on to the Silence in between your thoughts and explore it. There you’ll possibly find your emotions, your dreams and hopes, the voice of your inner guide, which is full of wisdom, and everything that’s not your personality.

5. Hold a vision

As you come to the end of your practice, hold a vision of your inner world as your forever home. Your sense of belonging has found a fertile ground. You belong here, within. Take three deep breaths as we did at the beginning and open your eyes when you're ready. Close this practice with a grateful heart.

6. Journaling

In the next few minutes it’s important that you find sometime to journal what you experienced. As you make the practice of Silence a daily ritual, everything you write down will begin to make more and more sense. Once you become used to exploring the roads of your inner world, Silence becomes the daily practice of returning home.

Catalina Goerke is a Contemplative Therapist and Life Coach. She developed the Silence Therapy Technique for Self-Healing.