How to Turn Down the Noise and Turn Up Your Well-Being

Duke wellness experts share simple ways to embrace silence and care for your mental health

A Duke Forest scene with rocks in a stream in the foreground and green trees in the background
A scene from Duke Forest. Photo by Megan Mendenhall, Duke University

Sadia Kamal puts effort into intentionally adding quiet moments to her day. When she takes breaks from her work as an IT Analyst for Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Kamal sometimes will venture on a short walk among nature. She reads from the Quran and prays five times a day as part of her devotion to her Islamic faith, focusing on silent introspection.

Still, Kamal craves more. She told her husband that even though she’s never been to Alaska, she might like to move there someday – for one reason.

“It seems so peaceful and quiet,” Kamal said.

In the May webinar hosted by Duke’s Personal Assistance Service (PAS) and LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke’s employee wellness program, Kamal learned why Alaska, known as “The Last Frontier,” holds such appeal.

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Sarah Smith, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with PAS, explained that snow acts as a natural acoustic buffer, absorbing sound waves. If you’ve ever experienced the muffled hush in the aftermath of a snowstorm, you understand.

“It’s absorbing sound that you would normally hear in nature – birds flying, the sound of cars on the road, even just the sound of trees moving in the wind,” Smith said. “Light, fluffy snow is going to absorb that sound and make it feel a lot quieter.”

And that stillness, that softness, that silence is something that can bring peace and well-being.

Silence, studies have found, can have a profound effect on mental and physical health. Intentionally adding silence to your day by purposefully stepping away and tuning out the cacophony of physical and digital noise that surrounds can have great benefits.

“It’s something we can do on purpose to hit the reset button,” said Moria Smoski, a Duke Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “If you’re taking a moment and pulling yourself out of your day-to-day and just letting things be quiet, it’s a way of minimizing the external so we can check on the internal.”

The Benefits of Silence

The science of silence and its power on well-being is not widely recognized and discussed, said Smith, the PAS counselor.

It’s adjacent to mindfulness, but not the same.

“It's different and it's similar,” Smith said. “The act of introducing silence into your life is going to be very intentional. We're talking about the absence of sound.”

Too much sound, Smith said, activates the sympathetic nervous system, which, in turn, affects blood pressure, heartrate, glucose and cholesterol. Constantly processing noise can lead to fatigue, headaches and anger.

Removing sound and that constant activation of the “flight or fight” reaction helps the body relax.

“It helps us repair,” Smoski said. “It helps us regain resources. Just letting our bodies be in that for a little while is helpful physically and emotionally.”

Silence can help reduce stress and improve focus, aiding with decision-making.

“If I’m in fight-or-flight, I’m no longer thinking about the pros and cons of something,” Smith said, “I’m just in a reactive state of mind.”

Pausing to ponder situations allows for time to consider its impacts, your goals and intentions.

“As opposed to just constantly reacting and going from one thing to another, it allows us to have more intention in our lives,” Smith said.

But how to do that in our world of constant connection?

How to Add More Silence

Here are ways you can add more moments of silence to your daily routine.

Make it a part of your morning ritual – Enjoy your coffee with a side of quiet each morning by setting aside a few moments for reflection.

Schedule quiet breaks – Take breaks from your workday to find a quiet place for reflection – maybe in a library, spiritual setting, or bench in a park.

Take nature walks – Being among nature can bring a grounding silence, which is why a walk in Sarah P. Duke Gardens or Duke Forest is relaxing.

Incorporate silence in the office – Use noise-canceling or noise-reducing headphones to help you focus.

Give yourself a digital detox – Step away from your cellphone, the TV and computer when you’re home. Just exist in the quiet.

Meditation – Take time to reflect and turn inward. LIVE FOR LIFE’s mindfulness webinars are a helpful place to start.

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