Welcome to the Anxiety Slayer series. Our mission is to assist you with creating more peace and tranquility in your life

through anxiety release exercises and supportive tools created to slay your

anxiety.

When you're suffering from anxiety, the idea of peace of mind can seem quite impossible or unreachable.

And the more anxious we feel, the more we're inclined to try and fill silence.

We're conditioned to stuff silent times with petty actions, texting, talking, television,

Twitter, anything but just sit and stop and embrace the quiet.

But it's silence that gives us the space to breathe,

to let our consciousness uncromple and expand.

Silence opens the door to the beautiful experience of inner stillness.

A few months ago I watched a series on BBC Television, called The Big Silence, which followed the journey of five people who'd signed up for a silent meditation retreat.

The guide was a Benedictine monk on a mission to teach that everyone can benefit from practicing silent contemplation.

I'm not sure if the monk or the participants

had any idea of the enormity of the challenge ahead of them. Silent retreat meant literally

most of their time was to be spent in complete and utter silence and often solitude too.

Not just one or two hours a day, but most of their day, every day, spent in silence.

One by one, they came undone.

The bigger the silence, the bigger their sense of the space it created, and with no talk, texting, etc to fill that space,

it soon started to draw the kinds of thoughts and feelings from their minds that we all use business to push aside.

Left with their own thoughts, fears and feelings,

expanding to fill their new-found space,

all the participants began experiencing intense emotional outpourings.

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