Alyssa Mates – Newsletter, Third Edition. The power of sitting in silence…

Last month I shared something a little different – the practice of grounding, of getting your bare feet on the earth and letting your nervous system breathe. I’d love to know how you went with that. Did you try it? Did it feel strange, or did it feel like coming home?

This month, I want to go one step further. Same theme, different practice. I want to talk about sitting in silence.

Have You Ever Actually Tried It?

Not silence as in the TV is off. Real silence. No podcast, no music, no scrolling, no background noise filling the gaps. Just you, sitting still, with whatever is in your head.

For most of us, the first few minutes are uncomfortable. The thoughts come racing in – jumping over each other, pulling in every direction. The to-do list. The bill you forgot. The conversation you’re replaying. The worry you can’t quite name. It can feel like the inside of your mind is a very busy, very loud room.

But here’s what I’ve learned: that noise was always there. Silence doesn’t create it – it just lets you finally hear it. And that is actually the beginning of something good.

What Happens When The Mind Slows Down?

When you sit with it long enough – even just five minutes – something shifts. The racing thoughts start to lose their urgency. The noise settles. And underneath all of it, there is a quieter voice. Your actual inner voice. The one that knows things.

This is where the revelations live. Not the dramatic kind – though sometimes those too – but the small, honest ones. The recognition that you already know what you need to do. That you’ve been avoiding a conversation, or a decision, or a number on a page, because looking at it felt like too much. In the silence, those things rise gently to the surface. And somehow, out in the open, they feel more manageable.

This is something I believe deeply: the answers are within you – if only you would take the time to listen. Silence is how you listen.

What This Means For Your Money:

So much of our financial stress doesn’t come from the numbers – it comes from the noise around the numbers. The anxiety, the avoidance, the comparing ourselves to others, the feeling of being behind. When we’re constantly stimulated, that noise has nowhere to go. It just circles.

Sitting in silence creates a clearing. In that clearing, you can ask yourself what you actually want – not what you think you should want, not what looks good from the outside. What genuinely matters to you. What financial freedom would feel like in your life, on your terms. That kind of clarity doesn’t come from a spreadsheet. It comes from within.

How I Started & How You Can Too:

I won’t pretend it was easy at first. Sitting still felt like wasting time. My mind would immediately fill with everything I should be doing instead. So I started small. Five minutes. That’s it.

I’d set a timer, sit somewhere quiet, close my eyes, and just breathe. Some days I’d focus on the breath – in and out, nothing more. Some days I’d let the thoughts come and practice watching them pass by without grabbing onto them. A simple five-minute meditation, done consistently, changes something over time.

You don’t need an app, a special cushion, or any experience. You just need five minutes and a willingness to be quietly with yourself. Start there. Build from there.

Your Invitation This Month:

Before you open your banking app, check your budget, or sit down to deal with anything financial – try this first:

Set a timer for five minutes.
Sit somewhere comfortable and close your eyes.
Breathe slowly and let whatever comes up, come up.
Notice what rises when the noise settles.

You might be surprised what you already know about your own financial life – and yourself – when you finally get quiet enough to hear it.

If this resonated with you, reach out – I’d love to connect.

— Alyssa Mates