Il silenzio ritrovato

Simonetta Sandri · 29 August 2026

Elogio del silenzio

We are slaves to time and noise. We rush between notifications, sounds, commitments, and news that we forget a second later, losing how to truly live.

Modern frenzy has stripped us of the ability to stop, listen, and enjoy the little things: a sunset, an aimless walk, a slow conversation, picking a daisy, pricking ourselves on a rose thorn while slowly arranging it in an elegant crystal vase, walking barefoot on dew-drenched grass, watching a white cloud that looks like whipped cream, or holding hands.

Besides time, we have lost silence. Immersed in a constant din, we perceive calmness almost as an anomaly that makes us uncomfortable. Idleness does not exist; it is seen as a waste of time, which has become a tyrant and dictator—along with the diktat of unrestrained consumerism.

Yet, as authors and philosophers remind us, silence is not a terrifying void: it is the space in which to organize our thoughts and find ourselves again. It has even become a luxury for the few, reserved for those who can afford to travel or live far from the chaos.

Rediscovering slowness and silence does not mean isolating oneself from the world, but returning to understand it.

Let us reclaim the right to slow down, to be with those we love, and to do nothing: it is the only way to care for ourselves and reclaim our humanity. In the woods or walking across a mountain meadow, it matters little. Towards the summit of ourselves.

Books in hand

To start, why not dedicate ourselves to reading Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge or Silence by John Biguenet?

Kagge reminds us that, on average, we lose concentration every eight seconds and that distraction has become a way of life, perpetual entertainment a bad habit everyone has picked up. And when we encounter silence, we experience it as an anomaly, as something strange and foreign that we do not expect: often, instead of appreciating it, we feel uncomfortable and lost. Kagge, on the other hand, has made silence a lifestyle choice. During the months spent alone in the Arctic, at the South Pole, or atop Everest, he learned to make nature’s spaces and rhythms his own and to immerse himself in both inner and outer silence: an immeasurable treasure and a source of regeneration that we all possess, yet find hard to draw upon, immersed as we are in the clamor and continuous noise of daily life.

But what is silence? Where can it be found? And why is it so important today?

To these three questions, Kagge provides thirty-three possible and intriguing answers—reflections stemming from experiences, encounters, and readings, all driven by a single certainty: that silence is the key to understanding life. Seeking silence is not about turning one's back on the world, but about observing and understanding it. Because silence is not a haunting void beyond our reach, but the act of listening to the inner sounds we have muted and forgotten, or perhaps failed to recognize.

John Biguenet also asks what silence is: whether it is a simple absence of sound, an extraction of thought, or if, as Saramago wrote, it does not actually exist—because even our voice and our thoughts reflected within us ultimately have a sound, almost an echo.

What is certain is that within it, one can sort through thoughts shaken by the frantic daily pace and find peace from disappointments, uncertainties, abuses, and injustices. To rest. While science today—as the author notes through experiments with the anechoic chamber (a laboratory environment designed to minimize signal reflections on walls, the term coming from the Greek for "echo-free")—casts doubt on its actual existence, authors like William Shakespeare, Laurence Sterne, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Rainer Maria Rilke, alongside painters like Mark Rothko and Marcel Duchamp, have questioned the meaning of silence and its representation in literature and art.

Biguenet investigates the shifting faces of silence: reward or punishment, lethal weapon or tool of resistance, a void to fill or a feeling of fullness, a luxury good or a nuisance to avoid. Silence today is often, and increasingly, the prerogative of the wealthy, the author continues—of those who have the privilege and the means to live far from noise they do not produce, away from clanking rail tracks, noisy factories, or roaring highways. Certain luxury cars are manufactured with near-zero noise; silent airport lounges are the privilege of a few. Even quiet train compartments cost more, where using a mobile phone (what a relief…) or speaking loudly is not allowed. The same applies to isolated atolls or intimate hotels located far from crowds and immersed in nature.

Meditation and neuroscience

Ancient and modern philosophical and spiritual traditions highlight the importance of silence. In Eastern cultural practices, silence is associated with achieving inner tranquility, a sense of balance, and (to put it simply) the unity of the mind.

From a scientific perspective, meditative practices have been extensively studied in the fields of neuroscience and psychology. However, silence—a crucial aspect of these practices—has not yet received the attention it deserves.

To encourage the scientific community in this direction, organizations such as the Research Institute for Neuroscience, Education and Didactics of the Patrizio Paoletti Foundation have organized events like the International Conference on the Neurophysiology of Silence (ICONS).

What emerged is that silence is not merely an absence of noise, but a fundamental resource for psychophysical well-being and for rediscovering mindfulness and inner peace. In modern frenzy, it allows us to stabilize emotions, connect with ourselves, and improve non-verbal communication.

Key Benefits of Silence

We are, of course, talking about voluntary silence—the conscious act of seeking moments of tranquility and peace in everyday life, which can be cultivated through:

There is an urgent need to nourish one's soul.

What if we simply tried walking on a meadow or in the woods, looking up at the sky, and idling a little—or 'flâner', as the French would say?

Image in evidence Van Mailian - Pexels, in the middle Oktay Köseoğlu - Pexels

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