Speaker 1: 0:05

Greetings and welcome Welcome to the Sweet Spot. Friends, thank you for joining me. I'm Dr Derek Sweet. I'm your host on Making Moves Monday. Are you ready to begin? Are you ready to have a powerful week? I know I am and I'm glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:23

So this week we're starting it a little differently Not with noise, not with hustle, but with silence. Yeah, silence, because silence isn't empty, it's full of answers. This Making Moves Monday, we're going to look at the power of silence. And here's the move no rushing, before we even begin, we're going to pause, we're going to relax and we're going to let silence seep in. As you know, we live in a world that never stops talking. As you know, we live in a world that never stops talking. Noise everywhere, notifications, updates, headlines, opinions. Our minds are flooded, our nervous systems overloaded and somewhere in all of that noise, my friends, we lose ourselves. So this week, yeah, we're reclaiming silence, not as absence, but as a presence. You see, silence isn't passive, it's quite powerful. It reduces stress, it sharpens the mind and it nurtures creativity. This is all proven in the literature, it's all written about silence, and when you practice silence, you can deepen your relationships, and the one relationship that really benefits from the practice of silence is the one we have with ourselves. By choosing silence, through mindful pauses, through still moments, moments of quiet, of quiet reflection, we don't just disconnect from life, we reconnect to what matters. And that's the secret. We don't lose something when we're silent, we actually gain. And that's the whole idea of putting that into a Making Moves Monday episode. And here's the move we start our move with silence, not something that's intuitive, but it's powerful.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Before you leap into your grind, I want you to pause Before you answer the text, take the call or fire off an email or get into your next practice, move, breathe, take a break, get in touch with yourself and be silent just for a second or two. And be silent just for a second or two. You know, the neuroscience tells us that just two minutes of silence a day can lower your cortisol levels. That's the body's stress hormone. Imagine that, that you can actually, just by being quiet, bring your stress levels down Two minutes. But you've got to take those two minutes and you've got to build them in consciously. It also reactivates your prefrontal cortex, your decision maker, the CEO of your brain, so you will lead with more clarity, you will think more clearly and you won't be so reactive and impulsive when you build in silence. Imagine that your brain really thanking you for trying silence on. So when you pause first, you don't lose momentum, you actually build it. Your brain loves it. You lead yourself instead of being led by the noise.

Speaker 1: 4:27

It's a strange thing in this highly distracting world in which we live A ping, a ring, a buzz, a vibrate, any sort of movement or sound can lead us into thinking a certain way or reacting a certain way. You know, the philosopher Max Picard said it best Silence is not the absence of something, but the presence of everything. Silence holds power, and when we start with silence, we set our week in motion, not with chaos, but with clarity, the strong, silent type. Okay, part of being silent is about gathering your strength, taking a moment to reflect. So today I want you to practice it. Take one decision, one conversation or one situation and pause first. Let silence prepare you, put a space in between the stimulus and the response. You put it there and give yourself an opportunity to respond and not just react. Ask yourself what would happen if I didn't just rush an answer or rush into this activity or rush to do it.

Speaker 1: 5:51

You know, the ancient wisdom also speaks on this, in Isaiah 30.15,. The ancient wisdom tells us In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Yes, there's strength in being quiet, there's confidence in being quiet and silent. Carry that with you.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Let silence be your starting point on this Making Moves Monday, because in a noisy world, your greatest move might be the one you take after a moment of quiet, after a moment of silent reflection. Build it in, build it in. Build in the silence, build in the quiet, build in that moment for you to get in touch with you before you just respond to something or to someone or take on an activity. That make sense I know it does. It's Making Moves Monday, my friend and you are going to be silent and deadly. All right, okay. Now this is Dr Sweet, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for Take Action Tuesday, where we're going to build on this extremely powerful secret weapon and superpower called silence. If you like what you're hearing here on this sweet spot, I'd like you to subscribe to the channel. But more than that, share it with someone who you believe might benefit from this wisdom. Take care.