Being Hear Now

We live in an increasingly noisy world. The volume of media and marketing messages and information on the outside coupled with internal pressures created by expectations, work-life responsibilities, anxieties, fears; prejudices, hang-ups and habits challenge our equilibrium and impede our ability to listen (just when we need it most).

Life in chaos is an experience many of us are familiar with. We know how this chaos can threaten our relationship to ourselves, others and the natural world….if only we could find a way to still the chaos before we lose our balance to a point of being de-stabilized and un-rooted.

Somehow we know that at the centre of the cacophony of our life, at the heart of the chaos, there is calm. This insight, if we stay with it long enough, creates hope and an opening, an opportunity for change – a desire for balance is born. Accepting responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in, we become empowered to take action – to make change.

Leap of Faith

Wanting change and actually achieving and experiencing the change we want are worlds apart. Change creates tension, fear and resistance. If we focus on the gap rather than on the change we want, we may become overwhelmed, experience vertigo even nausea. Not knowing where to focus, we may seek refuge in fantasy or habit with the result of no action, no change. Where can we find the energy needed to realize the change we want to make?

 

 

 

Just be

SOS books instruct that when you’re lost in the woods to stay put. The search party will locate you eventually – random movement will just expend valuable energy you can’t afford to lose. If we follow this instruction, what could we hope to experience? Imagine the search party within you and you intent on being found. Sit down, calm yourself and tune-in shutting out all distractions and just be with your Self – unfocused, clear…just you and your breath, knowing that you will be found. Simply focus on your breathing. Watch the rise and fall of your incoming and outgoing breath…stay with it; one breath at a time; feel, observe and listen to the sensations you experience in your body mind. Watch the thoughts, feelings and images that come to you, as if they were clouds in the sky, just passing. Witness them without judgment; always returning to the comforting regularity of your breathing pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If balance is key, the answer may be in the inner ear.

Our ability to listen can be influenced by our emotional state. Can you listen well when you’re upset or angry? Listening means not only listening to what’s being said, but also tuning into your own thoughts and feelings to assess how you’re receiving the message. Through listening you assess what you perceive against what you feel in an efficient and meaningful way. As listening skills improve we learn to filter the messages coming our way, receiving and organizing relevant information and feelings for each unique situation.

 

 

 

 

Listening energizes

Sound is movement. Our ears transform sound and movement vibrations received into neural impulses to send to the brain. Our ears, not only let us hear, they control balance, help coordinate body movement; permit language, allow us to speak eloquently and sing in tune.

The inner ear is entirely embedded in bone. The labyrinth of the inner ear has two parts: the spiral-shaped cochlea and the vestibular system. The cochlea is responsible for sound perception, the energy we receive from sound is cochlear energy. The vestibular system that allows us to perceive 3 dimensions of space and is responsible for balance. The inner part of the vestibular system is filled with fluid and covered with sensory hair cells.

When our head and body move, the labyrinth of the inner ear moves with them with the vestibular fluid following at a different pace. The difference in speed of the movement of body and the fluid stimulates the sensory cells resulting in neural impulses sent to the vestibular nerve which carries the message to the brain. Vestibular sensations record body positions and movements permitting their control. The energy we receive from body movement is vestibular energy.

Cornerstone for centered and grounded perception
The sounds and movements we experience are food for our nervous systems, providing almost 90% of our sensory energy needs. Listening requires the ability and the desire to use our ears. We tune in and tune out at will – we choose to listen. Listening energizes us and brings about harmony within us and in our relationship with others and our world.

 

There’s nothing more healing than feeling well-listened to. The practice of listening to our inner voice or to another can have the same healing effect. It can provide us with the energy (our inner resources galvanized) to bridge the gap and attain our objective. Listening helps us stay centered and grounded, present in the here and now, energized and ready to act. Listening affirms and validates and as such it is the cornerstone to developing self awareness and fundamental to coaching.

 

 

 

Contact me for a free trial session and experience the powerful, healing benefits of being listened to.

 

 

 

Copyright © Julia von Flotow 2007