Scroll all the way down to discover a full transcription of this episode.
When was the final time you spent a second savoring silence? Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, guides us via an appreciation of silence and its restorative powers.
Scientists have discovered that simply spending two minutes in silence can decrease blood strain and coronary heart charges, even when in comparison with listening to sluggish, enjoyable music. Take a deep breath and invite your self to carry area for silence.
Easy methods to Do This Follow:
1. Discover a quiet place to relaxation. Set a two-minute timer and put it apart.
2. Shut your eyes and soften your face. Permit your self to hearken to the silence and relaxation your physique.
3. On the finish of the 2 minutes, slowly open your eyes and see how you are feeling in your physique. Or, proceed resting in silence for so long as you want.
Right this moment’s Happiness Break host:
Tricia Hersey, is an activist, organizer, and founding father of The Nap Ministry. She can be the creator of a brand new ebook, Rest is Resistance.
Study extra about Tricia and her new ebook: https://thenapministry.com/
Observe Tricia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenapministry/
Observe Tricia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thenapministry
Extra sources from The Larger Good Science Heart:
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Transcription:
Dacher Keltner We dwell in a noisy world. And we people have created a number of it. The sounds of vehicles, machines, airplanes, notifications on cell telephones — our personal voices. What if we have been silent?
I’m Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break. A break in your day to attempt practices to convey you extra pleasure, compassion, a way of peace. On as we speak’s Happiness Break, we’ll discover silence – and why experiencing it’s so vital to our well-being.
Noise comes at a value. Continuous publicity to noise may cause stress, anxiousness, despair, hypertension. And lots of research present that it will possibly play a giant function within the growth of some immune ailments. In the meantime, the literature exhibits that spending two minutes in silence can decrease blood strain and coronary heart charges, even when in comparison with listening to sluggish, enjoyable music. Scientists have even proven that when mice spent two hours a day in silence, it really stimulated the expansion of recent mind cells within the space of the mind the place we course of feelings.
Guiding us via as we speak’s follow in savoring silence is Tricia Hersey. You might know her by her social media persona – The Nap Bishop. She’s an artist, an organizer, and founding father of The Nap Ministry, a company devoted to combating capitalist pondering by advocating for relaxation. Right this moment’s follow was impressed by a chunk of knowledge Tricia’s grandmother handed all the way down to her, that quietude is of the utmost significance, and we should always at all times give ourselves time to take a seat with it. So discover someplace quiet and cozy, and luxuriate in this meditation on silence.
Tricia Hersey I’m right here as we speak to talk about silence and the concept of reimagining relaxation. There may be a lot noise. There may be a lot doing. There may be a lot exercise, however I imagine that the physique is a sight of liberation. Wherever our our bodies are, we will discover relaxation. We are able to discover silence. We are able to discover mindfulness. We are able to discover liberation.
My grandmother, Ora, is the muse of this work, and I discuss her on a regular basis. She taught me learn how to relaxation and was a mannequin for relaxation in a system that was trying to crush all the things round her. A Black lady, refugee of Jim Crow, terrorism. She raised eight kids and dozens of grandchildren.
And each single day in between her two jobs, she sat on the sofa and relaxation her eyes. I by no means knew what she was doing as I used to be a younger woman watching her sit on the sofa in full silence, eyes closed.
And I’d at all times ask, “Is grandma asleep?”
And with out lacking a beat, she wouldn’t even open her eyes.
She’d say, “Each slumber ain’t sleep. I’m resting my eyes. I’m listening. I’m listening to God. I’m listening to the universe.”
So as we speak, I wanna do one thing untraditional and maintain silence proper now on this second. You’ll be able to have silence and you may faucet into the liberation that’s obtainable in your personal physique. And in your personal thoughts, you’ll be able to decelerate.
So proper now, shut your eyes if it’s secure to take action. I need us to be like my grandmother, aura, and wherever we’re, we will proceed letting this second play via your audio system via your cellphone, via your laptop computer. And use this time to have a second of silence to hear, to shut your eyes.
And whenever you hear the sound of this bell, that’s your invitation to carry area for silence. To quietly hear.
And whenever you hear it the second time, that’s your invitation and second to return out of your silence, to open your eyes, to really feel.
Lengthy pause
Silence is a sound and is a type of relaxation.
Lengthy pause
Hear.
Lengthy pause, adopted by bell tone
Thanks for holding silence, for experimenting, for reimagining relaxation, for being part of the Relaxation Is Resistance motion. We’ll relaxation.
Dacher Keltner Thanks, Tricia. Tricia Hersey is an activist, organizer, and founding father of The Nap Ministry. Her new ebook – Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto – is out October 11, 2022. We’ve got a hyperlink to that in our present notes wherever you’re listening.
I hope you loved that uncommon reprieve in silence. And I hope you’ll inform us about your expertise. What did it really feel like to take a seat in quietude for that point? How a lot silence can you discover in your each day life? E-mail us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
I’m Dacher Keltner, thanks for taking this Happiness Break with us. Happiness Break is a manufacturing of PRX and UC Berkeley’s Larger Good Science Heart.
