This article that starts out about silence but is about much more:
For decades, scientists had known that the brain’s “background” activity consumed the lion’s share of its energy. Difficult tasks like pattern recognition or arithmetic, in fact, only increased the brain’s energy consumption by a few percent
In 2001, Raichle and his colleagues published a seminal paper that defined a “default mode” of brain function—situated in the prefrontal cortex, active in cognitive actions—implying a “resting” brain is perpetually active, gathering and evaluating information. Focused attention, in fact, curtails this scanning activity.
Follow-up research has shown the default mode is also enlisted in self-reflection… the brain’s default mode network “is observed most closely during the psychological task of reflecting on one’s personalities and characteristics (self-reflection), rather than during self-recognition, thinking of the self-concept, or thinking about self-esteem, for example.” During this time when the brain rests quietly, wrote Moran and colleagues, our brains integrate external and internal information into “a conscious workspace.”
I find that practising everyday mindfulness – going about one’s daily activities while simply observing them – is difficult to do for more than a few moments at a time but surprisingly powerful. It immediately puts yourself at the periphery of what’s happening instead of at the center, and as a result details open up in routines, people, things you deal with everyday. It’s magical even if you lose it in seconds, and it leaves me feeling much calmer and less excitable for several minutes after. This article helped explain how.