How To Find Quiet In A Shouty World
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|September 2018

​​​​Modern life is noisy, frenetic and mentally exhausting, which is why “quietude” is so very golden, says Nikki Gemmell.

Nikki Gemmell
How To Find Quiet In A Shouty World

A year ago, I was drowning. I turn towards quiet like a plant towards the light, yet stillness and silence – a recalibrating stopping – were beyond me. I just couldn’t glean them anywhere amid the cram of mothering four kids and being a wife and full-time work; an agitation of the soul was swamping me. Quietude involves a fervent wish for simplicity, and I couldn’t simplify my life.

The word noise is derived from the Latin word nausea, meaning seasickness. I was drowning in noise. It felt like a time for risky living; to somehow carve out tranquillity or I’d go under. My family was suffering around me. I was shouty mum, snappy and stroppy, becoming someone I didn’t recognise and didn’t like.

Quietude felt like a necessary medicine – but first I had to recognise where to find it. It was the first leakings of dawn in the night sky. The golden hour at sunset when the world was exhaling and the light was honeyed up. It was flicking an off switch on the great noise of life. The hand held out to someone, unasked. An eyelid kissed. A spiritual surrender. It was a house awaiting the return of the children, breath held. It was the roar of a seashell to an ear and the hum of silence in the desert. It was a necessary, listening pause, the observer and the listener. It was a gift.

Most of us exist amid cram, women especially. Of work in the home and the wider world, of family pressures and myriad social snares, of life. A search for quietude involves a surfacing into light, and lightness. I learnt to find it in the simple things around me. A kitchen anointed by sunlight. A candle’s honeyed glow. The Sanctus in Fauré’s

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2018-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2018-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY NZAlle anzeigen
PRETTY WOMAN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

PRETTY WOMAN

Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
July 2024
Hitting a nerve
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
July 2024
The unseen Rovals
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The unseen Rovals

Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
July 2024
Great read
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Great read

In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
July 2024
Winter dinner winners
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.

time-read
7 Minuten  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
July 2024
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE

Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.

time-read
7 Minuten  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 Minuten  |
July 2024
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
July 2024