Silent travel is the new wellness trend that has caught on this year.
We live in a noisy world with diminishing space for a wandering mind. And yet, most of us are not good at sitting in silence. In our travels, too, we’re increasingly looking to switch off and find refuge from the chaos for a little while. Hence the rise of silent travel: one of our top travel trends for 2024.
We have designed Pebbles to be a place of silent reflection, an immersive experience in nature and water. A place to listen to your inner thoughts, communicate with friends and discover a new sense of being.
What is silent travel?
It helps us disconnect to reconnect – with nature and to ourselves and our loved ones. It is a more mindful form of travel, that leaves you relaxed after a holiday and not needing another a holiday to recover from your holiday. This trend has ancient roots with silent meditation retreats. It originated out of the Buddhist practice of Vipassana, which translates as “seeing things as they really are,” or insight. Vipassana retreats involve spending a period of time in ‘noble silence’, with most of the day taken up in meditation or reflection. They range from long weekends to 10-day experiences and are offered all over the world at various intensities.
While they can bring enormous benefits, silent retreats are not an uncomplicated force for good. You will have the opportunity to find a balance between being with yourself and socializing with your family and friends at Pebbles.
Spending time in silence has a lot of well-being benefits
It helps us settle into our thoughts and feelings, reflect on our inner being, manage stress, and make us more productive. Studies indicate that silence augments the development of new brain cells. Just two minutes of silence can produce a more calming effect than relaxing music. Adding silence into our daily lives can calm us, help us communicate better, deepen our relationships with ourselves and others and improve our mental health.
A deluge of content competing for our attention
We have a deluge of content competing for our attention that’s a constant soundtrack to our always-on lives. As a result, opportunities to sit quietly with ourselves are rare. In such overstimulated times, silence is a highly valued commodity. The ‘silent walking’ trend is taking TikTok by storm. There is a growing desire to find new ways to escape the noise of tech-indulgent lives.
Research indicates that People are becoming less accustomed to silence in our digital age. One neuroscientist Anne-Sophie Fluri has focussed on this phenomenon and says that Noise can cause stress, especially when the listener doesn’t have control over it.” A lot of health problems can be attributed to noise pollution including depression and cardiovascular disease. The average user of Spotify listens to over 35,000 minutes of music each year. That’s not including podcasts when they brush their teeth or audiobooks that they fall asleep to.
Is this a problem? Possibly. But you are not alone. More and more of us are living our lives on iTunes, social media, listening to Podcasts and these web services make it much easier to do so with algorithmically curated Spotify playlists, and falling asleep to the (soothing ?) glow laptop screens or the soothing dulcet tones of Stephen Fry. Podcast streams have increased two fold in the last five years, while audiobook consumption has doubled. Music streaming is rising rapidly with over one billion music streaming subscriptions this year.
Silent travel is good for the planet
Silent travel isn’t just good for our wellbeing, but also for the planet, representing a more sustainable form of travel. Quiet Parks International, a non-profit is dedicated to preserving quiet for all life. Natural quiet is an essential quality that both humans and wildlife need, states the organization. Dollars spent towards travel at quiet destinations helps to preserve those places, which have been shown to be some of the healthiest and ecologically stable on the planet.
So take the first step towards a silent vacation, book your stay at Pebbles. Use coupon EARLY at checkout for complimentary wifi, parking and firewood.