It dawned on me this morning. Which do we most commonly start with? When we are young, we spend so much time listening before we can even speak. Why should that pattern ever change? Only once we have learned how to listen well do I then think we can speak well. Well, I believe we can all benefit from less judging and more listening.
When we listen with less judgment, we always develop better relationships with each other. It’s not differences that divide us. It’s our judgments about each other that do. Curiosity and good listening bring us back together.
-Meg Wheatley
A friend recently reminded me of something from Eckhart Tolle. If you rearrange the letters in the word listen, it also forms the word silent. Have you improved your silence during this cycle? Are you beginning to listen better to everything around you on the outside and on the inside? What is it teaching you, and how is it now guiding you?
The three qualities essential to deep listening: silence, reflection, presence.
-Kay Lindahl
If what I write does not resonate with you, then do not listen to it. Honestly, it hurts to put that here, but I do not want anyone to follow along blindly. I prefer to see everyone listen to their own true wisdom and guidance. Make sure you tune in to and listen to the right voice, though. Our egos can be very loud in our minds, and that is not the voice I am recommending leveraging. Instead, there is a deeper well of knowledge waiting beneath that layer. Can you listen to the purer, quieter, and wiser voice that bubbles up instead?
You are your own greatest teacher. Learn to trust your internal source of wisdom.
-Tamara Levitt
Listening is an incredibly valuable and underrated skill in my opinion. I will continue to improve my practice of it for the rest of my life; I want to observe as much as I can in order to learn as much as I can. I believe we are surrounded by so much beauty, so I choose to slow down enough to observe it all with as many of my senses as possible.
The earth has music for those who listen.
-George Santayana
Are you listening to unique and novel moments in the present, or is your internal radio stuck on the same channel of negative self-talk, worries, fears, and doubts? Change the channel for a bit and see how you feel. What changes can arise in your life as a result?
Maybe it is wise. Maybe it is dumb. Time will tell.