It's fascinating how remarkably underrated listening is in today’s world, despite how many areas of our lives it holds the ability to transform.
I guess this is so because all things that are challenging tend to naturally, become rare.
But nevertheless, listening is exceptionally difficult because it requires...
1) Humility
The freedom from pride, our false self, and ego. Accepting that you may be wrong, that you may not have everything and everyone figured out... and believing that this is ok.
It's listening to others in the same way that you would like others to listen to you.
Or,
It's listening to every word that another says as if you know nothing about them at all.
*Try it with your wife the next time you speak. Or a friend or co-worker if you're not married.
2) Curiosity
Curiosity is possessing the heart of a child and explorer- and believing that there is always more to be discovered in our own hearts, in every person we meet, and every conversation we enter into.
Beauty hides in the least suspected of places, and to find it, as Albert Einstein said, "The important thing is not to stop questioning."
3) Wonder
Wonder is what that we find at the end of our humility and curiosity as we discover beauty and truth in the most unlikely of places.
—
Upon first thought, we may think that listening is first learned by doing so with others. However, it couldn’t be further from the truth. The art of listening begins with oneself.
It may be deamed as a waste of time, as boring, or inconvenient in today’s fast-paced world, but if we never stop to listen and appreciate the thoughts passing through our own hears and minds, how will we ever hope to appreciate the thoughts within others?
Listening to our own thoughts with grace, wonder, and curiosity, while practicing to accept whatever thoughts, impulses, and emotions arise within us without judgement or seeking to change them is what’s makes an extraordinary listener.
And it’s also what makes others love speaking to us, too.
If one is not listening, in stillness, to his own thoughts and impulses and contemplating what he finds there, both God and the world will quickly feel like a distant place.
So humble the part of your self that craves attention, fears being wrong, resists stillness, and viewing others without compassion and curiosity....
And listen.
To the silence, the stranger, the lessons that life is teaching you, and the quiet Spirit of Truth that is always living and speaking within you.
The world is always teaching. But can you recognizing it’s voice? Do you know what the Truth sounds like?
Right this second, in a still place within your soul, He is speaking.