Quiet. Your best friend, your worst enemy

I am a pro chatter box. I can go on and on endlessly and still feel like I could talk some more. But when you're thousand miles away, it is difficult to find company. When the husband would go to work, I would sit and wonder what could I do to pass the next 6 hours that would make my day feel productive? Slowly, I figured it out. Coming from India meant that I had family and friends who I could constantly reach out to, but here I had to come up with innovative ways to keep myself occupied.

If there is one thing that I've learnt as an only child, it is to improvise. I don't remember having an imaginary friend, I was always comfortable playing by myself and that skill helped me immensely. During my growing up years, my parents kept telling me that no matter what, one should never be bored one's own company. And how true. Because how does one rescue you from yourself? I've mentioned it in one of my earlier posts, I decided to learn new things. Cooking, art, craft, yoga, sleeping well, watching TV, basically everything I do on vacation.

But there is a difference in silence your crave for and silence that is imposed upon you. The latter can do weird things to you. As much as I enjoyed the large forest, I was also on the lookout for some human interaction. I would be excited when a neighbor drove past, I would see habitation and take heart in the fact that there were still people around me. When I would crave to talk to people, I would simply switch on Netflix and keep watching, endlessly. Sometimes, just for the noise. I felt like one of those comedic actors from scenes where they use recording of a noisy street or the railway station just so they can sleep. But these brief moments of quiet taught me the importance of the people I have in in life. From time to time, I have been known to shut off from all kinds communication like on the blog, on social media and the likes that I kinda now regret.

Silence teaches you so many things, for me it was learning to be at peace with myself. Confronting every single one of my thoughts. It is to enjoy my own company. To entertain myself. To sleep well. To dance like no is watching because no one is watching. I did my yoga and sang my songs and I felt extremely satisfied.  Even now on the one off days where I get the house to myself, I put on some music, plop in the bed with a book or simply turn on Youtube and watch random cat videos. I've learned to keep myself company in the best way possible.