Unfolding. Agitation. Crunchy. Relishing. Golden. Home. Safety. Expansiveness. Awakening.

How do you feel with quietness?

Do you seek it? Do you avoid it? When was the last time you intentionally chose silent time? What does pausing sound like to you? Does the thought of three days in a cabin without music or TV make you anxious or longing?

Are you aware of the quality of silence between you and other people? In conversation, especially new conversations? Do you fill the space with talking? Do you fill the air with music, TV, singing, nattering, prayer, one word at a time?

What does listening feel like?

In silence, a broken heart is reminded it is alone — and held. An over-busy mind is challenged by peace — and given space to unfurl.

Silence is the gap we must fall into everyday in order to rest into our humanity.
@DanielleLaPorte (Click to Tweet!)

Silence is where we can go to know what wants to be known.

11 Quotes on Silence

The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.
– Henry David Thoreau

Each one of us is called to become that great song that comes out of the silence, and the more we let ourselves down into that great silence the more we become capable of singing that great song.
– David Steindl-Rast

The starting point for creativity is silence… the creative soil of silence, where can be found the seed-states of all things.
– David Spangler

Silence is not an absence of sound but rather a shifting of attention toward sounds that speak to the soul.
– Thomas Moore

In a quiet moment we can get an intuitive insight that can change our entire life and the lives of the people around us in incredibly positive ways.
– Elaine St. James

Silence is the language of the soul.
– Dadi Janki

God is the friend of silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
– Mother Teresa

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

In silence alone does a man’s truth bind itself together and strike root.
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.
– Rumi

Silence is so accurate.
– Mark Rothko

Danielle LaPorte is the outspoken creator of The Desire Map, author of The Fire Starter Sessions (Random House/Crown), and co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan. An inspirational speaker, former think tank exec and business strategist, she writes weekly at DanielleLaPorte.com, where over a million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice — a site that’s been deemed “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality”, and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes.

You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter @daniellelaporte.

Image courtesy of Patty.