The Power of Silence

Samantha Wilson

I graduated with my social work degree in 2017, and moved to Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick with my partner Charles. He grew up on the island and I loved being close to the ocean every day, I find it very grounding. I found I spent a lot more time enjoying nature than when I lived in the city.  The only thing that was difficult when I first moved to Grand Manan was there were no opportunities on the island in my field and I was keen to work.

Although I loved my social work degree, my professors, and my classmates, I knew I had no interest in working in a traditional social work context. I felt like sometimes the way I viewed social work differed from the traditional context of it. Sometimes I found that we were trying too hard to quantify our profession to compete with other professions. I understand the value of quantitative data and theories, it’s important. However, I found some of what I learned in social work to not be applicable to a rural context.

I felt like the way I wanted to practice social work, wasn’t the traditional route. So for the past year and a half, I created my own jobs, managed to be involved in an awesome contract job teaching mental health and self-esteem programs in rural Charlotte Country schools.

But I still wasn’t where I wanted to be. I kept getting frustrated at myself for having all these ideas but not applying them into action. I had all this passion and creativity inside me but nobody to help me apply it. I was internalizing so much frustration and dissatisfaction. Then I decided to go to India in hopes that this journey would help clear my head and re-motivate me when I got home. The month I spent in India made everything so clear for me in ways I never thought possible. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for my next steps when I got home.

I found this awesome international course I wanted to take, that would help me launch the business ideas I had been creating in my head for years.  All my questions and frustrations that had been in my head over the past year, just disappeared. India gave me the confidence I needed to get things going. I spent the entire time in India teaching, meditating, practicing yoga, reading about spirituality, self-reflecting, enjoying nature, and most of all enjoying the silence.

I realized how important meditation was and how it cleared my mind enough to allow me to answer some big questions I had in my life. I’m excited to see where this next chapter in my life goes as I start my new business. I have some long-term global goals I would like to achieve but India helped me to realize, I have to start small and build up. I spent too much time in my life creating ideas but not putting them into action. Now it’s time to implement these ideas and create a new path. So thank you India for your inspiration.