Be Quiet in 2025!

I don’t know about you, but it seems like more and more, I can’t escape the pull of constant connectivity. Every spare moment, from waiting in line at the grocery store, to lying in bed at night, even stopping at a traffic light fills itself with scrolling through social media feeds, reading endless articles, or listening to/watching streaming content. I’ve become so accustomed to consuming something—at all times—that it feels awkward not to have my phone with me when I’m alone. 

I started fighting against this about eight months ago and tried several times to minimize the distraction of the phone in my life. I first had to be honest with myself about phone addiction; a very real issue that leads to a lot of unhealthy habits. Since then, several attempts with varying degrees of success have been made to disconnect. It took a while, but these efforts have become (finally!) growing habits that are bearing fruit. If your life is filled with endless scrolling, here are some things that helped clear my head from all the noise and helped refocused my mind and heart on listening to God.

1. Drive in silence. I use a lot of my drive time to pray and thank God for as many things as I can think of. It has trained me to continue to grow in my gratitude to God. Try it and see what you think. 

2. Walk or run in silence. Many times, I’ll put earbuds on with no music playing just to block out more noise. These times of physical refreshment have very consistently turned into fantastic prayer times.

3. Rest in silence. I used to scroll until I got sleepy. And if I woke up in the middle of the night, I’d scroll until I got sleepy again. Then I realized that scrolling was actually keeping me awake more than it was putting me to sleep! 

Some other practical things that have helped make my phone less influential was to remove social media apps (ouch!) and to keep it charging out in the kitchen at night, instead of by my bedside. It felt like caffeine withdrawal! It was difficult at first, but the more I did it, the easier it became.  

I didn’t realize how much I missed the silence. You don’t always have to be listening, reading or watching something. I’m convinced that God speaks the loudest in the quietest places. If you’ve missed it, try minimizing what distracts you the most. Make it a goal for you in 2025. You won’t regret it!