Personal growth is an important aspect of careers and an important part of lifelong learning (Van Dam, 2016). The extant literature highlights developmental challenges as one of the crucial factors in personal growth and that personal growth can lead to spiritual growth (Ganti et al., 2024). In order to make best use of the developmental challenges it is crucial to learn how to deal with and make sense of these challenges and to experiment with possible selves to bridge transitions that are the core of personal growth (Ibarra, 1999). This transitional process of personal growth is often accompanied by inner conflicts (Koole et al., 2018). There is a growing body of literature that indicates that moments of silence can be beneficial to deal with inner conflicts and support personal and spiritual growth (Valle, 2019; Naor & Mayseless, 2020). Being "inside of silence gives us fluidity and mobility to shift moods and environments. Silence is transitional and it invites change" (De´nomme´-Welch & Rowsell, 2017: 23). Lehman et al. (2019) call for research that explicitly looks at the dynamics of silence to better understand what happens before, during and after embracing silence. In this poster presentation I combine insights gained from exploring literature on silence and insights gained from my personal experiences with silence, combining a narrative literature review with autoethnography. The goal of the poster is to bring together different perspectives on silence and to deepen our understanding of the value that can be created by silence for personal and spiritual growth. A question to be explored is: How can the combination of narrative literature review and autoethnography be leveraged to balance subjective personal insights with rigorous scholarly analysis?
