Wolfgang
Photo A.M. Moscoso
When I used to suffer from severe Panic Attacks my cat Wolfgang would lay on my pillow next to my ear- or he would sit with his head on my shoulder and breathe into my ear.
I would listen to him breathe and little by little my chest would not feel so tight and my heart would quit racing.
To this day when I am under stress, if I think about that sound of his breathing it really helps get me back on track.
FYI- I have no idea why Wolfie took it upon himself to help me the way he did or if he even knew what was going on. But when I was in distress, he was ALWAYS there.
That brings me to this film ( six minutes long ) called ‘Stille’ by Thomas Riedelsheimer and Google Arts and Culture.
First of all it’s amazing- my favorite parts were the curtains and the clouds and when I observed this silence, I felt the same sort of relaxation and clarity that I felt with Wolfgang.
I can also see that this would be a great film to watch to sort of quiet the storm before writing.
This is a really fantastic film.
I hope you will watch it and enjoy it.
From Google Arts and Culture:
A collaboration with filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer and Google Arts & Culture, taking you on a restorative journey through rural Germany and beyond.
Silence is a widely misunderstood concept, often dismissed simply as the absence of sound. On the contrary, scientists are discovering that silence can have tangible, positive effects on human health, able to slow our breathing and heart rate, reduce levels of cortisol in our bodies (the ‘stress hormone’) and even help us grow new brain cells.
Filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer has spent over a decade capturing moments of silence. This has been paired with sounds specifically designed to slow your body using nine second breath cycles. Ephemeral, gently changing, and with a focus on silent happenings and non-happenings, the result is intended to help you reappraise silence in a new way.