Season 2. Ep 35. Solitude
“A man may any hour he pleases retire into himself; and nowhere will he find a place of more quiet and leisure than in his own soul: especially if he has that furniture within, the view of which immediately gives him the fullest tranquility. By tranquility, I mean the most graceful order. Allow yourself continually this retirement, and refresh and renew yourself.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4-3
Video Version
Audio Version
Timestamps
2:30 Asceticism Review
6:00 Overcome Chronic
9:00 Internal Order
13:00 My Aversion to Solitude
17:30 Quiet and Silence
23:30 Noise Hurts
31:00 Silence Heals
33:00 Original Solitude & Communion
35:00 Silence & Prayer
39:30 How to Find Solitude
Notes
S2 E4 - “Asceticism” - https://www.becominggift.com/post/asceticism
S2 E7 - “Relationships” - https://www.becominggift.com/post/relationships
Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations
“Diversion.—When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war, whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. [...] But on further consideration, when, after finding the cause of all our ills, I have sought to discover the reason of it, I have found that there is one very real reason, namely, the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely.” Pascal, Blaise. Pensées - 139 (p. 17 - 18). GLH Publishing. Kindle Edition.
“environmental noise leads to a disease burden that is second in magnitude only to that from air pollution. One in three people experiences annoyance during the daytime and one in five has disturbed sleep at night because of noise from roads, railways and airports. This increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure.” - https://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2011/03/new-evidence-from-who-on-health-effects-of-traffic-related-noise-in-europe
S1 E12 - “The Tiger in Your InBox” - https://www.becominggift.com/post/tiger
“Our nervous system is continuously being stimulated by the acoustic environment in which we live. While we feel calm and safe while listening to some sounds, other sounds alert us to danger or life threat. Some responses to sounds are learned through associations with negative and positive experiences, while others are “hard-wired” into our nervous system. The acoustic features of sounds that trigger these hard-wired reactions has been described in the Polyvagal Theory” Dr. Stephen Porges, The Polyvagal Theory, 2011.
Two hours of silence promotes neurogenesis -
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259110014_Is_silence_golden_Effects_of_auditory_stimuli_and_their_absence_on_adult_hippocampal_neurogenesis
“The communion of persons could form itself only on the basis of a :double solitude” of the man and the woman , or as an encounter in their :distinction” from the world of living beings (animalia), which gave to both the possibility of being and existing in particular reciprocity.” St. John Paul II, General Audience 11/14/79 - http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19791114.html
“What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love” St. John of the Cross, The Saying of Love and Life, 132, Collected Works, p. 95.
“Contemplative prayer is silence, the "symbol of the world to come" or "silent love." Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the "outer" man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus.” Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2717. - http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm
The Light Phone - https://www.thelightphone.com
Getting Things Done (GTD) - https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/
