{This post comes from this week’s Monday Morning #GOALdiggers newsletter. To get a weekly dose of inspiration in your inbox, sign up!}

As summer winds to a close I am trying to figure ways to not be so amazingly caught up in the news, social media and 24/7 noise that comes along with living in the digital age.

In an effort to get back in touch with my creative side (it was there before, I swear), I’ve been taking a few moment each day to just be quiet. I have an assignment to thank for this (will share more on that later), but ever since I was tasked with researching WHY we should take time away and sit in complete silence, I’ve been finding myself doing it more and more.

So why should you STFU?

Here’s the short of it: Continued noise, always being on-call, and being chained to our smart phones, the web, and all of our devices does more than just make us nervous we’re going to miss out on something; it wreaks havoc on our bodies, too.

Sustained noise elevates our blood pressure, constantly stimulates our nervous system, and causes our minds to get overworked, which can mean that we are less focused and less productive. So I’ve been trying my hardest to just be quite and be one with the silence.

Only, it’s harder than it sounds.

As soon as I turned off the TV, closed my laptop, and killed the radio, my thoughts started to run wild…about everything. Vacuuming the house, paying bills, getting my hair done, working out, cooking, the dude I’m crushing on but shouldn’t be, life, my career, why things are moving so slow, and…well, you get the picture.

The thoughts FLOODED in. And then the silence made me uncomfortable. Not having noise to distract me made me focus on things that I don’t really like about myself and, if I’m honest, am painfully self-conscious about.

Yesterday, while rereading the novel A Love Noire, I ran across a line that really struck me.

In the book, one of characters tells the protagonist, “Loving a man is impossible if you insist on seeing his faults.” While Noire, the main character, applies this line to her current mixed up relationship with her boo, I turned it on myself.

If we continue to critique ourselves relentlessly, tearing ourselves down for every perceived weakness, every fault, every imperfection, then we will never get to the awesome (and necessary) place of self-love.

While I know that I may never be 100% comfortable with every single part of myself, I don’t want to spend my days going in on myself either.

Life is too short, and there are too many amazing things to do and people to meet to waste time and energy wrecking my own self-esteem.

As Lil’ Scrappy would say…Ya feel me?

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Do you take time to just be silent? Please leave a comment and let me know how it works for you.