FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT:
Dearest Federation Family, you have been so kind during these past months in support of my more esoteric Quick Byte Articles, I so appreciate that my thoughts, feelings, and words are hitting home with many of you. I love hearing from each of you on just how things have resonated within you after reading a quick ditty from my heart.
Today I want to speak regarding Listening. How do you listen? Listening is something we must strive to do with our entire being. Yes, we certainly hear the words, but do they register, do we understand? Listening is hard. Listening takes our complete focus and utilizes other parts of our intuition when we are doing it correctly.
We have all heard about “active listening”, the art of putting our entire being into the art of listening to what is being said. This is, of course, not easy to do. We live in a world where multi-tasking is worn like a badge of honor and we cannot listen properly when we are doing a multitude of other things when we should be paying attention.
When we actively listen, we use our entire body to hear what is being conveyed. Notice my choice of words: “conveyed”, not “said” …for we must listen with our eyes, our heart, our gut, and we listen In the Now…in that very moment. That is truly listening!
We hear all sorts of things come out of a person’s mouth, but what does their body tell you? Are they fidgeting, cannot sit or stand still? Do they wear their nerves or bravado like a shirt? What about their eyes, do they look at you, or look away? Do they falter in their speech, or do they sound rehearsed? I taught acting for a living, Directed and Produced many shows and I have a gift for knowing a show when I hear and see one.
When we listen with our entire being, actively listen, we know the truth. We can plainly see if someone is hurting or putting on a show for our benefit. Some people can look you right in the eye and lie to your face. They tell you they understand or that they are fine when you can plainly see that their motives something else entirely. There are a great many people that only listen to respond. Believe me when I say: they do not hear a thing you are saying because they are tuned in to how to respond to your comments as opposed to listening to what you are saying, they go on the defense as soon as you open your mouth to speak. Not listening.
But when we listen with every part of us, we become attuned to the finer points of enjoyment and conversation, we can hear, feel, and see who needs help and is not asking for it, we can hear, feel, and see who is blowing us off, we can hear, feel, and see the answers of others in a reciprocal conversation that are all things honest, open, and loving.
So, I ask you: How do you listen and can we each strive to listen a little better in 2021?
Luv, Pam
