on talking

in the last couple of days i talk to a lot of people. The more people i meet, the more i talk. Obviously. But this is a proliferating pattern. The more things you articulate, the more verbose you get. From time to time, though, it is a good thing to take a verbosity rest. Speak less and focus on your thoughts.

If you say or write words that do not add to the point you want to make, skip them. Question, if you really need that many words. Try to leave out a few, it will make you a better communicator. You will get more precise.

It happened that there were days, were i was so focused on my thoughts (read: what is the essence of what i want to say) that i skipped speaking entirely. From a couple of hours, up to a full day. All of these days, no matter for how long i stopped talking were extremely refreshing.

Recently i've gone through some struggle, personally. I was upset. I was furious. But instead of getting angry and yelling i just stopped talking, completely. Not a single word came out of my mind, for a longer period than you would think.

So instead of talking, i was filtering words in my mind, to just let those reside, that add to my point. It felt great. After a couple of minutes, you immediately realize how many things you say, that don't need to be said, anyway.

After a couple of minutes, there is almost no need to talk any more. So you stay quiet. It refreshes your mind and helps you focus. Not talking removes noise from your thoughts. Therefore, it helps to reduce the number of words you need to communicate.

Vipassana is a form of meditation where it is not allowed to talk. There are closters in india that you can visit for exavtly that purpose. The idea is, to clean up your mind with all that litter of words in your head. So for a full month, you do not talk. I never tried it myself, but i am intrigued.

Sometimes i just stop talking for a couple of hours. That helps a lot. If i stop talking for a day, it feels like a holiday for my mind. Give it a try. You will certainly benefit from that. As a person and someone who lives with other people and therefore has to communicate.

If you read until here, thank you for paying attention. If you want to learn just one thing, learn this:

Next time you get filled up with emotions, stop talking. For a couple of hours. If you talk, use only those words that are required to say. Leave the noise out.