learning to shut up.

I'm not the world's most talkative person. Far from it.

But the bulk of the time that I'm not talking, my internal monologue is going a mile a minute. I just cannot shut up.

I just couldn't settle this evening. I was at home by myself, thinking far too much.

I couldn't stop thinking. It was time for dinner and time for the news. But I didn't want to watch the news. I wanted to calm down, stop thinking. Stop needing to think.

We have some Nooma DVDs lying around the TV. I grab one and put it on just to have something different happening.

The title of this Nooma was called "Noise". It talks about how we have so much noise in our day to day life that we forget to listen. We are uncomfortable with silence.

The still, small voice is rarely audible with the TV blaring in the background.

Once the short film was over I went out of my house and into my car. I was driving to the mountain just outside of town.

I was silent, the radio was off. I was trying to switch off the white noise in my head. Every time a thought popped into my head, I told myself to shut up and listen.

When I let myself listen, I could hear. It wasn't easy, but I listened. I'm glad I took the time to listen. Sad that I hadn't done so earlier.

Amazing what happens when we just shut up.