True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Your mind needs off-hours the way your body needs sleep, and it almost never gets them. Podcasts in the car, a screen at dinner, something playing while you fall asleep. None of that is rest; it is just quieter work. Actual silence feels empty at first, and then it starts refilling something you did not know had run down.

Try twenty minutes tomorrow with nothing playing and nothing to read. Walk, or sit, or wash up slowly. Resist the reach for your phone at the first dull moment, because the dull moment is where the rest begins.