Listening is one of the most under utilized tools available to us today. We often think we are listening but if we truly checked in we would see that we are only partially present. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being fully present and 0 being tuned out, how would you rate your level of listening with the following:
Divine guidance, intuition, inner voice
Children, spouse, family, friends
Boss, employers, co workers
Your pets, nature
On another scale of 1-10
How much do you talk versus listening?
Observe yourself even for one hour as you interact with another person and see what you notice?
I compare the art of listening and talking to a great game of catch. You don't want to play with someone who consistently hogs the ball and runs away with it. When the ball is thrown back and forth it creates an enjoyable game for both people.
I had a friend that would have very strong control boundaries around talking and listening and would say, "Okay you can have 10 mins to share your news and then I will share mine". This created enormous pressure and eventually I shut down and did not really want to say anything. We all have different levels of listening throughout any specific day.
Below I will introduce you to the First Level.
Level One- Our attention is on us. We listen to the words of the other person but the focus is on what it means to us. The spot light is on our own thoughts, feelings, judgments, conclusions about oneself and others. Many times this is appropriate such as when we are traveling and needing to gather information, ordering at a restaurant or buying a product. Level One informs us about ourselves and what is going on around us.
Exercise
Notice how often you are at level one listening?
Spend some time in nature and see how many different sounds you can hear.
Make a conscious decision to really listen.
Sending you all much love, light, laughter, ease and joy.