Silence is very good for you.

Noise, not so much. Stress, insomnia, heart disease—all possible adverse results of the world’s screaming, relentless, insidious, invasive. The cacophony of opinions, endless chaos and catastrophes – both man- and Mother Nature-made – as well as the convoluted actions of the current President are the antithesis of calm.

Composer and Stanford music professor Jonathan Berger wrote in Nautilus, the word noise “shares its etymological root with the Latin ‘nausea,’ which, in turn, is rooted in the Greek ‘naus‘ or ship. Noise, although an auditory phenomenon, is strangely related to seasickness” Hmm…

Silence is, purportedly, a healer. The quiet spaces between audible sounds stir a region in our brain called the default mode network, but don’t regard it as downtime. As journalist Daniel A. Gross writes in “This Is Your Brain on Silence,” “even in the absence of a sensory input like sound, the brain remains active and dynamic.” In fact, when the default mode network is in session, the brain cells involved in concentration are sent to their rooms and told to be quiet. Too much conscious focus narrows the mind. Time-out may be just what the doctor ordered

Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin elaborated, “the default mode network is also known as the daydreaming mode. If you’re a carpenter and you’re hammering, you’re really paying attention. That’s the central executive mode. Its opposite is this daydreaming mode.” Mentally lounging in daydreaming mode can be restorative. He compared it to sleeping: “During sleep, there’s a lot of cellular housekeeping going on, getting rid of dead cells, purifying the bloodstream, organizing the thoughts of the day and consolidating them into memories. And that’s also what happens in a waking state during the daydreaming mode.”

There’s something else healing and restorative. When the daydreaming mode is activated by quiet, and our brain wanders across the landscape through our senses, we are freed to hear not one thing but everything. That opportunity widens the mind.

Expanded thinking is good, all good.