[sim7c00]

This is absolutely true, though perhaps hard to understand just put simply like this. Sitting in silence is not the solution, but it will cause a solution to occur within you.

Sitting quiety will make you self-reflect. Self reflection will reduce stress and fear. Reduction of stress and less fear is a reduction in problems caused by human error, and negativity towards eachother (due to fear).

[pjc50]

> Self reflection will reduce stress and fear.

People will say things like this, and then miss how many people immediately become uncomfortable with sitting quietly lest they face the risk of self-reflection, and how many social tools for avoiding it we have.

[sim7c00]

This is true. I practice it for a long time now, and still struggle a lot. How well it goes depends totally on the context of my life. It's hard, and honestly led to being very depressed a long time. But now I do feel like a better person, a lot of insecurities are gone, and with that, a lot of things that i did which were ultimately negative, also are gone (mostly). (lot of things still to work on :D).

I did go to therapy after a while for a few sessions, that's definitely something i'd recommend when depression hits. it's totally worth it, to get some confirmation or guidance on psychology.

One of the things for example for me that was an issue: I became super indoorsy after a bad injury. That also caused me to excersize less. This both led to a loss of anti-cortisol production, which is a hormone that reduces stress. That ultimately meant, that no matter how long i'd sit in silence, i'd still be stressed because my physiology lost the ability to produce that by itself. Now i go for lots of walks outdoors, and do some minor excersize. It helps a lot to reduce stress again, but I do still need to meditate / sit in silence to reduce fear.

[ranguna]

There's always therapy

[frereubu]

Nitpicky, because I get what you mean, but "self reflection will reduce stress and fear" is by no means always true and I'd argue it's probably not really true for most people in practice. Epictetus said (paraphrasing!) that people are rubbish at self-reflection and you need to practice it to be good at it, like anything else. Lots of people approach it in terrible ways and it leads to really bad outcomes - giving up immediately, doom loops, too much self-criticism - so it really does need to be done (to use a more modern reference) mindfully.

[szundi]

Seconded. I hear a lot from psychologists that some people are so afraid to be alone for even short amount of time and self-reflect, that their whole lifes are chasing activity and partners

[sim7c00]

i do agree. it takes a lot of practice. i got guidance by someone who was already practiced and i can highly recommend. its a personal experience though, so its hard to find someone who fits your inner.

for the record. i am really bad at it still. learning every day :)

[throwaway7ahgb]

I agree, however why is that small issues are so large when trying to sleep at night? A little thought we can reflect on becomes a big problem late at night while trying to sleep.