The Art of Listening Deeply

These past few weeks have been very intense for many of us. This has been a consistent message when talking to numerous colleagues, clients and friends.
“What is going on?” some have asked.
For some who have been courageous to move with this transformation happening within, it has felt like a pressure valve being released. Internal transformations often happening as a result of external events or situations. Endings and beginnings – often sudden and abrupt. Circumstances rearranged around one.



This is definitely true for myself. So many things have been coming up for ‘review’. In fact, it feels like a relentless collapse and deconstruction of my old consensus reality.

What has this to do with the ‘art of listening deeply’ you may be asking?
Well, in fact – everything.
When you start to realise that transformation isn’t an adornment to your existing life, but its complete unravelling – then everything changes.

This realization requires the capacity to listen to one’s inner voice, that voice deep within, deeper than intuition – a ‘sense of knowing’.

“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?
Masters don’t seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, they are present and can welcome all things.”
Lao-Tzu

Listening deeply, both to the ‘inside and outside’ allowing everything around us to find their place, so they are aligned and intertwined.
This then enables a deeper sense of being which, at its core, is the right to become, who and what we are meant to Be and Do. A deeper sense of belonging, being in the flow – honest and connected. No more games.

This can be a challenge for some of us, as it is the games that keep us engaged in the ‘bigger game’ of whatever we are involved with, which seems to take precedence over our connecting with our deeper self.

‘The Universe’ might send us messages – like my car door for instance – and, if I chose to not listen, then an important message might have been missed. I could have stayed on the same treadmill, the same way of doing things. However, this incident or ‘message’ provided an opportunity to synchronise with my ‘self’. To identify and align with what and where I was nurtured and fulfilled.

I see many of my clients struggle with this process as they continue doing more and sacrificing the right to Be, sacrificing, if you like, something that might be more aligned to their greater purpose.

Doing and fulfilling gives us our place. it could be learnt from the role we played as a child.
How is this pattern still showing up in our life today?
Is it serving us to fully embody are deepest sense of self, to enable us to stand tall in our truth?

A practice that supports us in the art of listening deeply, is having a contemplative space, and to take the time for ‘reflection and digestion’. 

Thomas Hubl says we need this creative and contemplative space, which allows that inner knowing, for ideas to come through.

Learning to listen for the message, not the reactive response, but with reflection and stillness allows new creative impulses to show up. Refreshed and re-energised, the inner stillness allows us to experience a different state, where our life gets more unstuck, and situations appear to happen with synchronicity. It allows us to walk our talk, moment to moment,with ease. Things seem to flow, decisions are easier to make, a sense of alignment happens.

I call this our capacity to ‘stand tall’.

A client who always had the capacity to do a great deal in any one day – a high energy output – has, by slowing down and tapping into the inner stillness, increased his ability to sense things he previously may not have been aware of. Certainly not to the depth he is now able. His deeper intuitive capacity is helping him to make ‘wiser’ choices. His energy has expanded exponentially. Not to necessarily achieve more, but to intuit more complex issues differently. His sense of being has enhanced his sense of connection to others, and increased a sense of belonging. And this is all due to focusing on his art of listening deeply – a critical skill for leaders at every level.

Finding the contemplative space that is right for you is important.

My colleagues and I were discussing this last week. Also the challenge of finding that ‘space’. For one, it was walking with feet grounded with the earth, not being distracted by music or podcasts but connecting to nature to hear the trees, feel the wind – being ‘present’ in the now. For another, it was taking the time to sit on the mat and for another, it was being aware of the breath.

There is not one way. What is important is to be still, to have the courage to meet your challenges, to listen deeply to that inner voice and make wise choices.

• How will you develop the art of listening deeply?

• How will you embrace the ability to connect with your being?

• Will you take the courage to listen and act on that voice?