Bergita-Personal Narrative

The piercing fear in her eyes struck me hard. She was in a complete and utter state of panic, trembling uncontrollably and gasping for air. A tear fell softly from her eye and onto her hand which was throbbing and purple from the tight grip on her wheelchair. I knew I had an obligation to help her as a volunteer in the nursing home, but I wasn’t sure how I could connect to her or understand the cause of her distress -- she didn’t speak any English. Almost instinctively, I grabbed Bergita's hands and locked in on her eyes. Without saying anything, I held her eye contact and took a deep, exaggerated breath in and a smooth, slow breath out. I did it again, and again, and the last time she followed along with me. We held each other’s eye contact and began to breathe deeply and slowly together. Her breaths started to stabilize, and her tears gradually came to a stop. I stood there with her in a strange trance, not really understanding what had just happened between us. A thankful grin formed across her face, and her eyes smiled at me. Bergita felt better, and amazingly I hadn’t said a single a word to her. We had …show more content…
This experience taught me that intentional silence is an extremely powerful yet mostly unrecognized phenomenon. I think many people, including myself, have the tendency to complicate life with incessant and unnecessary conversation because they fear an “awkward silence.” However, silence doesn’t need to be “awkward.” Silence can join two people through a shared feeling of open possibility, slowing down the constant chatter of our minds. My moment with Bergita proved to me that often words can interfere with this; when we are silent we become less focused on ourselves and are opened up to a wonderful sense of selfless empathy. It’s this empathy that connects us meaningfully to others, which has become evident in my own