Listen with Your Heart

Posted by Marlene in Marlene's Feel Good Blog | 0 comments

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“Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also those who need it so much.” Daphine Rose Kingma

When was the last time you really listened to someone, not just to what they say, but to the feelings they convey behind their words? Today take the time to open yourself to someone else, without judgment or the need to fix anything. Stay quiet, listen and observe.

I’ve discovered that people speak volumes, only a small part of what they communicate is through their words. Body language, gestures, eye movements, voice tone and intonation are all reflections of what’s really going on in someone’s heart.

I believe we all have the capacity to feel compassion and empathy for others. I know that some days I’m more open to listening and sharing. than others. It’s not that I am less capable on certain days it’s more a matter of my willingness to open my heart to allow myself to feel vulnerable.

Having an open heart that stays open is something I aspire to. Just like everyone else, I need to feel validated. When I share from my heart, I want someone to listen, so I offer that to them first to create a level of trust.

A friend shared this story with me and I think it’s one worth Passing-Along to you. The title is:

If You Really Pay Attention
–by Paula Underwood (Sep 21, 2009)
Listen To Reading!

When I was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody came and said something to us, my dad would say, “You remember what he said, honey girl?” I would tell my father what the person said until I got so good at it that I could repeat verbatim even long presentations of what the person had said.

And he did this all the time.

Finally, one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his name, he lived across the street. And every time my Dad started to mow the lawn, there came Mr. Thompson. And so I would stand out there.

Dad says, “You might come and listen to this man, honey girl. He’s pretty interesting.” And so I listened to him, and then my dad would say, “What did you hear him say?” And I would tell him.

Well, eventually I was repeating all the stories he liked to share with my dad verbatim. I knew them all by heart.

And my Dad says, “You’re getting pretty good at that. But did you hear his heart?” And I thought, what? So I went around for days with my ear to people’s chest trying to hear their hearts.

Finally my Dad created another learning situation for me by asking my mother to read an article from the newspaper. He says “Well, I guess if you want to understand that article, you have to read between the lines.”

I thought, “Oh, read between the lines. Hear between the words.”

So the next time I listened to Mr. Thompson’s stories, I tried to listen between the words. My Dad said, “I know you know his story, but did you hear his heart?” And I said, “Yes. He is very lonely and comes and shares his memories with you again and again because he’s asking you to keep him company in his memories.”

It just came out of me. In other words, my heart echoed his heart.

And when you can listen at that level, then you can hear not only the people. If you really pay attention, you can hear what the Universe is saying.

–Paula Underwood, clan mother of the Turtle clan, Iroquois nation

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