Listening as a spiritual practice

No matter what you say, most people always receive your words through their own prism. If you are talking about your experience, they will be unavoidably comparing it to the experiences they’ve had.

It’s coming from a beautiful place, I believe – from the place of wanting to be connected, to relate.

What we don’t always realise though is that by always comparing our present experiences we may be blocking ourselves from Empathy.

Empathy, when not blocked, is a profound power. It is a force that expands our hearts, that lets us receive the transmissions of other people. But to experience real empathy one needs to be empty.

Next time you are listening to someone’s experience, try making yourself empty and free of thoughts. Observe the emotions and sensations in your body as the person is speaking, but more than anything become fully alert, fully available to receive them, see how you can listen to them with your whole body, with every pore of your skin. Let yourself be touched. Don’t analyse their words. Don’t interpret.

Tune in: What are they actually saying? What are they actually expressing?

It may seem that you are doing it for them, and, in fact, it is a kind of giving: to offer your full presence to someone is a real gift.

But this type of listening is your own spiritual practice. Trust the fact that if what someone is saying is shared with you, it means that something in your Spirit wants to hear that.

Listening becomes an active meditation. You will discover that you don’t even need to close your eyes to meditate. If you cultivate this type of listening, more and more of your life will be an active meditation.

And the deeper you can listen, the deeper you can hear, the more you can receive from Life
itself.

Photo by Yuya Hata on Unsplash