In our clamorous world with its ever-increasing distractions and demands, nothing is more healing to the mind and spirit than experiencing a special place of peace and quiet. Feeling your heartbeat slow, your muscles release and your thoughts start to expand and drift. Opening your senses to your surroundings and noticing tiny details you might otherwise have overlooked – this is the joy of quiet places.
Quietude may not always equate to silence. Sometimes it does, such as at One Square Inch of Silence in the United States and other official “Quiet Parks” designated by acoustic ecologists. The places of almost pure silence include seemingly endless deserts, cathedral-like forests and lonely moors.
But quiet places are often full of the soothing sounds of nature – water running, birdsong, wind singing in the grass or sand, or even the crack and boom of calving ice such as in Antarctica. They are also man-made places where human voices are hushed from a sense of the sacred – Thai temples, ancient Mayan ruins, museums and libraries. In this edited extract of Lonely Planet’s new book , we highlight pockets where the world’s travails will surely fall away as they inspire in-the-moment awe.
May it encourage you to find your own piece of peacefulness. Envision a landscape without a single wall, fence or pylon to break your line of view. A place where your eye can canter unreined to the barrier-less horizon.
Where you rise from the saddle and feel your horse fly across .