We will soon be enjoying our annual Yoga Retreat (31/3/ - 2/4/23) in the rainforests of Springbrook. And one of the highlights of the yoga retreat is waking up in Sacred Silence (mouna) and maintaining this silence until our first yoga class. And when I say this is a highlight, it’s amazing how the students love to go into silence and how reluctant we all are to break this sacred silence.

In everyday life, so much of how we think about ourselves, others, and the world is created through conversation. Talking about and relating experiences, forming opinions and having others agree and disagree with them creates a strong sense of identity and thus perpetuates a mind-based concept of who we think ourselves to be. Add to this all the other noise: the social media posts, the emails, the news headlines – we are constantly bombarded and distracted with new information. Our minds then create thoughts to continue that momentum, and before we know it, who we think we are, is influenced and driven by our thoughts, our conversations with others and who we are following on social media.
When we choose to practice silence, we are given a reprieve from that constant noise and given the chance to observe our thoughts without buying into them or acting upon them. What we wanted to say, how we criticise ourselves, what we think about X – all these thoughts move through our minds and in silence, we simply watch them drift by. As we watch and listen, we realise how our thoughts activate our emotions and drive our behaviour. When we don’t act on those thoughts eventually the ego mind settles and an awareness arises, revealing the very truth and nature in everything. In silence we realise we can choose to be our thoughts or not. It’s profoundly liberating. 
Going into silence can also be a deeply spiritual experience. As we stop the chatter we become aware of the interconnectedness of everything on earth. It’s easier to pray, to meditate and to ask for wisdom when you have enjoyed a period of silence. Silence can also gift us with healing. Without external noise and other people’s opinions, we can connect to our inner selves and attempt to make sense of life’s traumas and disappointments. And silence is good for your brain. It gives your prefrontal cortex a break from processing stimuli, and in silence, you can tap into something called the “default mode” of your brain, where you let your mind take over and daydream, contemplate, and create.
It’s little wonder that over the ages the great mystics, the yogis and the creatives all retreated into silence at some stage to enable them to shed their mind-based identities and tap into the wisdom of the Universe and create new thought forms.
Margot Wagner
Yoga Under the Bodhi Tree