I tried an experiment over the past few days where I did not talk inside the house. Now I did not ignore people, I engaged with everyone. It is just that I did not talk on my side of the engagement.
I took this approach because I talked too much at home. I lecture too much and I try to prove my point with too many words. I wanted a way to stop myself cold turkey. Not talking at home proved very effective to stop my talking habit.
The results of the short not talking at home experiment were not what I had expected. To be honest, I really did not know what to expect. Two main results emerged from my not talking.
I felt incredibly calm and peaceful. My attempts to communicate without words made me smile a lot. I had to engage with everyone at home face to face so they could get what I was trying to communicate. And overall, I just communicated less. All these effects of not talking were very freeing.
Not talking annoyed people. It drove people absolutely crazy that I was not talking. One person said that by not talking I was an insult to people who actually could not talk.
I am back to normal with my talking BUT I will practice silence from time to time to see if I can return to the calm I felt from not talking at all.