The Practice of non-speaking

There is a practice I remember one of my Sivananda teachers describing where you don’t speak for 3 days, called mouna– it is a voluntary vow of silence.

I remembered this because when I get depleted, my voice becomes very weak and I recently started feeling as if I was using massive amounts of energy just to engage in conversation.

Fortunately with a long weekend ahead, I can do such a silent retreat just by staying home and not answering the phone.

Of course I’ll still carry on these virtual conversations but there’s something about knowing the power of the actual voice that gets reactivated when you don’t use.

Talking can be one of the ways we lose energy. We don’t think about the thousands of words streaming from our mouth daily – thoughtful words, hurtful words, words of praise or condolence, taking-care-of-business words, cooing words, fun words, nasty words. Joyful songs, mad sounds, rude barks, ecstatic utterances.

My mouth, throat, palette, tongue are in re-treat today.