Calm (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)

11 The Power of Silence By Vijay Eswaran

When I was a child, my grandfather lived with me and my family. Every morning he would wake up at the crack of dawn and sit in complete silence for an hour. Even as the rest of the household stirred awake and the various morning rituals unfolded around him, he stayed still and quiet. Nothing could distract him during that time. He referred to it as the Mouna Vratham, a ritual of meditative silence long practiced in Indian Hindu tradition. He believed that abstaining from speaking for a set period each day brought him inner peace and made him a better listener.

Over the years, as I traveled to different parts of the world, initially for education and then later for work, I discovered that a ritual practice ...