At the 2018 Davos economic forum, a good number of the world’s top executives, including the boss of Tupperware, Rick Goings, could be found meditating for half an hour every morning.
Mr Goings says he spends 20 minutes in meditation every day of his life. “I can’t afford not to do it,” he says. "There's always a quiet place in your mind."
I come from a Quaker family and from childhood have understood the need for reflective quiet. Resetting your brain doesn’t have to take long. Even if you’ve only got five minutes, try being ‘actively awake’ to clear your thoughts and appreciate your surroundings. You can help to free your mind by really looking in detail at what’s in front of you, perhaps the minutiae of a flower, even just the patterns on the carpet.
Freeing yourself in this way feels amazing. It’s incredibly good for letting go of stress and boosting creativity: your brain can take you to unexpected places if you allow it some quiet moments of ‘down time’.
Whether you call it mindfulness, meditation or contemplation, deliberately bringing more moments of calm silence into your life can be a wonderful way of putting things in perspective.
And Quakers are notoriously long lived. Not everyone connects silence to religion, but for whatever reason you value it, I am sure the active practice of quiet can help you live a happier life, quite possibly even a longer one.