How comfortable are you with silence? I’ll admit it, NOT filling the uncomfortable silence… is NOT easy. For most of us, it’s just how we’re wired. The conversation stops and we feel an overwhelming and immediate need to fill that void with a comment or a question. Especially, when the topic of the interview is a difficult one.
So why wait? Isn’t it best to continue the momentum of the interview (a technique that can make the interview subject less aware of the cameras, and the lights, and themselves)? Usually, yes. However, there are times when the real story… the truth…is only visible in the moment after an interview subject stops speaking. And, so you choose your moment, and you wait. This is not a passive endeavor. In the stillness, you must create a safe space. A non-verbal haven of sorts… and then you wait for it.
Cay Molinar discusses her cancer treatment.
Excerpt from the documentary film Awaken the Dragon.