SELF-IMPROVEMENT
I Don’t Want to Listen — It’s So Overrated
Day 43, 50 questions for deep self-reflection
Do you struggle to listen? Have you been told you should, ‘listen more carefully’ or ‘pay attention’? Yeah, I’ve heard those words too. But what if listening was nothing more than a pathway to something more profound? What if the act of listening is simply an action that opens a sensory conduit and what really matters, the only thing that matters, is our allowance of the flow through that conduit?
This is day 43 of the 50 Questions for Deep Self-Reflection challenge from Know Thyself Heal Thyself created by Diana C.
DAY FORTY-THREE: In what ways is listening a sacred skill?
Oh right, it’s ME again!
How did almost eight months drift away? My last post in this so-called 50-day challenge was in February. But I figure if I keep coming back to it, even if the 50 days aren’t consecutive, I’m going to walk away with great insights. So, shall we?
What was the question?
It’s been a little while since I’ve done this, so I’m interested to see what comes up. Time for me to begin my reflection on today’s question.
In what ways is listening a sacred skill?
What comes up first?
Oh, I definitely had a few conflicting thoughts bombard me with this one.
- Listening is pointless if you don’t ‘hear’
- I’d prefer to listen to nature and sounds than the words of people
- Listening isn’t a skill, it’s a requirement and expectation
- What the hell is a sacred skill?
So, let’s play with all of that. I’m choosing to work backward — the opposite direction in which thoughts hit me.
What the hell is a sacred skill?
Every definition of sacred I can find refers to specifically ‘god’ and/or religion; two concepts I’m not particularly on board with. But for the purposes of this post, let’s consider ‘sacred’ as something that is important to the spirit. For me, the spirit is about collective consciousness. I was not planning on dropping any shameless self-promotion in here, but hey, I wrote a book called Human Concept: The Science of Awareness, in which I scientifically explore collective consciousness. So it seems silly to not share that here! Obviously, the below is an external link, and yes, if you buy it or read through Kindle Unlimited, I earn monies.
By my own definition, a sacred skill would be a skill that is important to the spirit, or, the collective consciousness.
I explored the presence of my own ‘spirit’ on day 34:
Listening isn’t a skill, it’s a requirement and expectation
Next, I need to define listening because in all honesty, the word is a little triggering. I was the one whose ‘school report card’ always said I’d do so much better if I paid attention. If I… listened. But I was bored by anything that didn’t interest me. They weren’t interested in MY interests. They weren’t interested in helping me to find a way to incorporate this new ‘information’ that was apparently so damn important. They weren’t interested in me hearing anything and they really didn’t care. They just wanted me to make their life easier by being quiet and listening. So, listening for me has taken on the meaning of compliance and expectation. Like god and religion, they are two concepts I’m not much interested in — at least, not anymore.
They just wanted me to make their life easier by being quiet and listening.
I’d prefer to listen to nature and sounds than the words of people
My spirit connects with nature. When I meditate, I don’t block out all sounds. Instead, I focus on what I can hear. Right now, in focusing on ‘listening’, I hear birds, dogs barking, the clock ticking, the background buzz of Tinnitus (I’m so used to it I only ‘hear’ it if I pay attention, lol), voices, hammering, cars, a child yelling, the heating as it kicks back in… and as the dogs play fight over a toy that arrived today, I realize that my hearing is restricted in space, kept close. In a quiet space, I can push my hearing out so much further than seems possible, but with the local noise, it keeps getting pulled back. This is an interesting thing to notice in relation to the overall question.
Listening is pointless if you don’t ‘hear’
For me, hearing is not about understanding, it’s about acknowledging, accepting, and absorbing. Listening is the pathway to hearing because listening is the action we take. Our ears allow us to listen. But for me, hearing is about allowing what comes through my listening devices to resonate. It’s about how I feel. Like music, it’s one thing to listen to it, it’s a whole other level of beauty to feel it; to hear it.
Let’s bring that all together
In what ways is listening a sacred skill?
- For me, sounds, vibrations, and noise are all about feeling.
- It calms me to ‘listen’ when I’m doing it to hear the world
- Local noise can block that greater experience of hearing and that invokes anxiety in me (THIS was a great insight to uncover)
- I have no desire to ‘hear’ judgment, expectations, or accusations and so, I do not listen. That explains a lot!
- Through using my listening equipment, I hear the world, I hear me, and so, I hear the collective consciousness that is part of my spirit just as my spirit is a part of it.
- I don’t just hear with my ears, I hear the collective consciousness with everything I am, and so, the act of listening seems so, external and forced. Huh! And there we have it!
Wrapping it up
I can only answer for me, of course, because my perception drives my response. I found it intriguing that in my response, I didn’t give much consideration to listening to people, almost as if, I knew that what they said was not a reflection of my own spirit. This makes a lot of sense though is not where I expected this thought trail to go. It’s so interesting what we discover about ourselves when we do get out of the way and hear… everything.
If you are interested in the journey so far — all the days that came before, I’ve collected all the article links here:
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