Every morning I enjoy reading the short chapter of the day in the book The Sacred Art of Listening and sitting in silence with what resonates right then and there.

Sometimes I feel moved to write, most often lately my experience feels more private.

I listen for guidance, perspective, a quiet feeling. I am not listning for what is next but to what is Now.

Deep listening, I have found, is love in action.

If I had to make steps out of it there would be three, and they would look something like this:

First, I feel the love I have for myself.

Second, I See the other person, genuinely wanting them to have everything their heart desires. I go from a great feeling of love for myself to feeling very generous towards the other person.

Third, I feel the heart to heart connection, the space in which reflection, vision, guidance, clarity and change thrives.

It’s very simple - There is only step one, and that is really not even a step. It's a feeling from which step two and three are natural by-products.

Have you paused for love today?
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Photo by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay

An insight is accurate information arising from the quiet space within. Like puzzle pieces finding their perfect fit.

Listening for insight is listening for inner peace. Peace is not found in thinking. Peace is what happens as our thinking quiets down.

Have you heard your heart speak? Have you listened deeply from a state of appreciation, patience, silence and presence? 

I'm know you have heard your heart speak, and more than you realize.

When our heart speaks it comes with clarity and certainty - in combination a solid feeling of unwavering calm and Truth. Your Truth!

This, lets call it Knowing, is the felt experience right before the intellect gets involved - Chatting away with all the reasons of why and why not. And before we know it we have forgotten what we originally Knew.

Listen for what you Know.
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Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

​Today’s listening practice is about appreciation, and for me, today, that means authentically appreciating Me - all that I Know and who I am.

Believing the judgemental voice in our head to speak truth is the easiest thing in the world to do. We get lost in it all the time, forgetting in that moment, that it is always and only our own voice speaking.

It’s effortless, and yet the unsettling feelings that accompanies this voice is a form of resistance. An innate resistance letting us know that the thought-direction we are moving in, is not telling us the truth of who we are. The truth of who we are is something entirely different.

We are already Enough.

Sitting in the awareness of authentic appreciation brings me back to center. To right now. I fall out of judgmental thinking and into awareness of the moment. I feel my breath.
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I invite you to take a moment today to authentically appreciate You!
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Image by Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay

We willingly and without effort give up on our thinking all the time - in a moments distraction by the scent of a flower, as we find ourselves immersed in something we love doing, when something colourful catches our eye or when we taste food made from love.

And, when we for a moment hear and feel the depth of resonance, of something True.

In those very instances we are not experiencing our thinking but the true nature of who we are.

We describe these moments as a deeper feeling of Freedom, Love, Knowing, Spaciousness, Connection, Relaxed, Clarity, Quiet, Calm, Grounded, Presence, Hope….feel free to insert your own word.

And, it is the natural and effortless act of a deep sigh as we let tension go, as we let thinking go. If just for a moment.

A moment is all we need.
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Imagine the impact on not only you or the person your are sitting across but on the state of the world when we willingly listen and communicate from the heart.

There is a space between thought. Like the space between the words we write on a page.

The space doesn’t seem to exist while we experience having a lot on our minds.
But, the space is there.

Within this space is the abundance of possibilities. Like each star on a clear night.
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So how do you experience this space you might ask. Well, how willing are you to give up on you thinking?

As I am istening for stillness a difference in intent comes and goes.
Do I listen for stillness to know what or when to speak?
Or, do I listen for stillness for the experience of stillness itself.
It is the difference between presence and mental chatter.
It is the difference between Knowing the impact of stillness itself and the illusion that an answer is still up to me, somehow.
Has listening taken a back seat to talking?

Finding the stillness within.

Hearing what we are called to - home, movement, quiet, awareness of breath, stillness …

Notice when you are listening - being in the absence of judgement, impatience, rushedness, boredom, self-assertiveness, defensiveness, distraction.
Notice the space.
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Inviting inner-stillness to the front of awareness. We listen from there.
What are you called to?