Listening

Holy Listening/Mindful Listenting

• Take a deep breath, ground yourself to the moment
• Set aside your own agenda
• Look into the other person's eye with warmth and receptivity
• Listen with your heart and mind
• Remain aware of the divine presence in both of you

How often to you fully, I mean really fully listen to another person?  Suspend all inner commentary (thoughts, opinions, wondering what you are going to say next) and fully listen to the other person.  The other person may be your partner, child, friend, family member, or stranger.  Intimacy is the divine connection between two people that is only experienced through holy listening.

Challenge yourself this week.  When you find yourself engaged in a conversation this week, try to follow the guidelines above.  Even when you find yourself with a difference of opinion, listen without judgment.  If we all would practice this type of mindfulness, think of how much peace we would have in this world.

reference: "Exploring the Way.  An Introduction to the Spiritual Journey."

Rilke Quote

This is a quote that I have found helpful when I am impatient and pushing myself or someone else to give me the answer NOW.

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."

Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet”