Cultivating Resilience and Personal Power Through SILENCE

Every so often, you meet someone different.

You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you feel it. They are calm. Grounded. Centred. Strong.

It’s not the kind of strength that shouts or performs. It’s a quiet, internal strength that radiates from within, a kind of silent power.

That’s what resilience can look like. That’s what I aspire to.

This isn’t about dominance or status or having power over others. The kind of power I’m talking about is cultivated through intention, awareness, and deep presence. It’s embodied and it’s accessible to all of us.

But most of us are so busy, so distracted, and so overstimulated that we can’t hear ourselves think, let alone access the stillness required to find our strength.

In a world that praises productivity and noise, silence is radical.

As part of my yoga therapy training, I attended multiple silent retreats. At first, it felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar. But as the hours and days went on, I could feel myself calming mentally, emotionally, physically. Once I returned from one retreat, my husband looked at me and said, “You look 10 years younger!”

I had returned to myself.

Silence wasn’t just relaxing, it was rejuvenating.

In fact, silence is a resilience practice.

It helps us build nervous system capacity, return to our centre, listen to our intuition, and face discomfort rather than run from it. It replenishes our mental energy and helps us process what’s happening inside and around us.

Dr. Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin, authors of Lead Yourself First, define solitude as "a subjective state in which your mind is free from input from other minds." They argue that solitude and silence aren’t luxuries, they are requirements for accessing clarity and wisdom.

But here’s the catch.

We are not taught how to be alone. In fact, in one study published in Science, researchers found that many participants preferred to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit alone in a room with just their thoughts (Wilson et al., 2014).

I get it.

I have filled my own life with noise and distractions: podcasts while walking, background shows while cooking, calling my mom while driving. It’s easier that way. It’s more familiar. But recently, I decided to give myself silent moments, small experiments in solitude.

And something shifted.

The other day when I was walking Henry, our dog (also known as "Henry Boo Boo Bear"), I noticed the flowers in full bloom. I couldn’t believe how vibrant the colours were. I stopped and inhaled their scent. I noticed the birds were singing so loudly. Somehow, I’d never really noticed that before. I even stopped to connect with fellow dog walkers instead of just smiling and walking past with my earbuds in.

When I walk in silence, I’m more present. More aware. More at ease.

When I step into silence, I step more fully into myself.

Why Silence Strengthens Resilience

• It increases self-awareness. Silence helps us notice our thoughts, patterns, and inner narratives.
   
• It calms the nervous system. Just two minutes of silence has been shown to lower blood pressure and reduce stress hormones like cortisol (Bernardi et al., 2006).
   
• It stimulates the brain. In one study, silence led to the growth of new cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with learning and memory (Kirste et al., 2013).
• It builds focus and presence. In the absence of noise, we return to the now—and the now is where our power lives.
   
• It helps us process emotions. Rather than distract from discomfort, silence creates space to feel and heal.

In a world that pulls us in a hundred directions, silence brings us home.

Four Everyday Practices of Silence That Build Resilience

• Silent Walking: Leave the headphones at home. Walk without input. Let your senses awaken. Listen to the birds, feel your feet on the earth, and notice the thoughts that arise.
   
• Silent Chores: Try doing the dishes, folding laundry, or cooking a meal without any background noise. Let it become a moving meditation.
   
• Silent Driving: Turn off the music and the calls. Just drive. Let your thoughts settle. Let the quiet support your nervous system.
   
• Silent Talking (Mindful Listening): This one might be the most powerful. In one of my MBSR trainings, we practiced mindful conversation: one person would speak for a few minutes, and the other would simply reflect back what they heard, word for word, without offering commentary or interruption. The result? The speaker felt deeply heard and honoured. It built connection and presence. Most people aren’t listening. They are waiting to speak. But when we listen deeply, we build empathy, awareness, and relational resilience.

Truthfully, silence can be uncomfortable at first. That’s normal. We’ve been conditioned to fill every gap. But discomfort is part of the detox, and if you stay with it, what’s on the other side is worth it.

Want to Try This with Me? A 3-Day Silence Practice Challenge

Curious what might happen if you stopped filling the silence? If you paused the noise and tuned inward instead? Try it with me. Just three days. I’ll be doing it too.

Day 1: Go for a 10-minute walk without your phone or music. Just observe.

Day 2: Do a daily chore (e.g. dishes, laundry) without a podcast or show. Focus on the chore.

Day 3: Try a silent talking. Ask a question and sit back. Your only job is to listen and then repeat back what they said as closely as you can. No advice, no fixing. Just presence.

Journal or better yet, email me at [email protected] and tell me what you noticed. I’d love to hear.

In Closing

These micro-moments of silence aren’t just calming. They strengthen your core and reveal your resilience.

When we practice silence, we practice sovereignty. We stop outsourcing our attention. We stop scattering our energy and we begin to reclaim our power.

Let’s reclaim your inner strength. Together.

P.S. True silence isn’t empty. It’s full of answers.

References

Bernardi, L., Porta, C., & Sleight, P. (2006). Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and nonmusicians: the importance of silence. *Heart*, 92(4), 445–452. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1860846/ 

Kirste, I., Nicola, Z., Kronenberg, G., et al. (2013). Is silence golden? Effects of auditory stimuli and their absence on adult hippocampal neurogenesis. *Brain Structure and Function*, 220(2), 1221–1228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s0042901306793 

Wilson, T. D., Reinhard, D. A., Westgate, E. C., et al. (2014). Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind. *Science*, 345(6192), 75–77. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1250830