Such a beautiful word. Sounds like a simple thing as well. To listen. And sometimes it is simple. Other times we do ALL kinds of things so we can avoid listening. We do this with others sometimes. When someone is talking to us and instead of REALLY listening and hearing what they are saying, we are somewhere else. Maybe we are even thinking about what we want to say when they have finished their sentence. When you aren't REALLY taking in what they are saying, there isn't a lot of listening going on.And how about when it comes to yourself? It can be VERY tempting to not listen in this dialogue as well. Sometimes there are sooooo many 'voices' going on in our heads, it is difficult to know which one is the TRUE voice. And sometimes instead of figuring that out, we decide we'll just push those voices out of the way and try not to focus on them. We figure they'll go away; they'll get tired after a while and leave us alone.
However, this really doesn't work. Even if the voices we are avoiding do get quieter (which usually is NOT the case), often this just means they show up in some other way -- maybe a heightened conflict, an illness, discontent.
Listening is a key element of going from Just Fine to that something MORE than just fine. And the key is really to be curious about ALL the voices. They are all just different parts of ourselves wanting to be heard. You know like a small child tugging on our sleeve, wanting some attention. When we give the voice the attention it wants, it often gets quieter. Or at least we can feel as if we're working together with it instead of fighting it.
Today, tune into your voices. Maybe there's one that you KNOW is there, but you've been trying to push down, push away. Remember that the voice just wants to be listened to. Be curious about it and ask it what it wants you to know. See if you can get past judging it -- it's not good or bad. It's just a part of you that wants to be listened to. See if you can get a little quiet, take a breath and do just that...listen.
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