How do you handle quiet? When was the last time you experienced true quiet, or at least so little acute noise (birds chirping, for example, instead of car horns) that it might as well have been silence? How much silence could you handle?

The modern world longs to distract us with as much sensory input as possible, whether in the form of music, traffic, podcasts, videos, crowds, machine whines, jackhammers, bright food packaging, absurdly sweet foods, video games, and the like. It takes real effort to experience stillness. Finding peace within quiet will distinguish you far more than any flashy content you might produce.

What can you do to cultivate quiet in your life? Even when you have can’t true quiet, what you can you do to cultivate quiet within your mind? You can know quiet on a subway car if you allow all of the bustle and noise to pass through you. But resist the world too much or delve too deep into your thoughts and even the quietest campground turns into a cacophony. Quiet comes first from your mind and second from the world. The better you can foster stillness amid noise, the better you can listen to the silence. How can you get a handle on quietness?