Monday, August 3, 2009

Listen to Grow

Change is hard, listening may be even harder. When we are changing we may find ourselves having to find more time to listen. Listening takes energy.

Finding the right people to listen to is not easy. Missteps are usually found along this path. The best method for selecting good "listening" is to go with your intuition. Listening to a person who is soothing might be good, yet they can lull us into a stasis, state of complacency or even a paralysis of indecision. Listening to someone who causes us major anxiety may not be a good choice either. However, sometimes the individual's who causes us minor anxiety and inner turmoil are helping us develop new thoughts, thinking patterns and helping us change.

Listen to learn, listen to grow. Change will come.

Who do you plan on listening to?

1 comment:

Fred said...

Terry raises an excellent question. I think this is essentially a spiritual question which I've found to be in two parts. First, I must listen to myself before I can listen to others and recognize that which is false from my inner saboteur and that which is true from my higher spiritual realm, or what some might call guardian angel. I find this to be a great struggle personally. Secondly I can then listen to close friends with whom I feel a mutual safety revealing intimate details. If you've had trauma or great difficulty, it helps to listen to someone who has had similar experiences because then they can truly empathize and bond with you as you are undergoing these changes in your life. Just having that extra perspective gives you validation. There are a few rare people who are endowed with true wisdom, and you know this because they are not ideologues and you will never be quite sure what they might say, but your inner chime rings with a reassuring touch of love when they speak or listen. By love, I mean the other person genuinely wishes the best will happen to you. There's a great book, One Minute for Yourself, by Dr Spencer Johnson, which has many nuggets of truth about taking care of yourself first. And as Terry suggests, this intuitive feeling about yourself and the intuitive feeling about who to listen to is vital to our happiness as we face transitions. Yet it is difficult. Some professional speaker told me that 90% of people don't care about our problems, and 10% are glad we have them. I hope this cynicism is not totally true, but maybe it is in the absence of true love. With an attitude of love, I don't think it is. But the point is we must listen to our souls or inner being first in order to establish our spiritual compass.