Welcome.
Thank you for being here.
And for choosing to make yourself a priority today.
This is your mandala card of the day.
A gentle pause to breathe.
Reflect,
And explore.
Before we begin,
I invite you to have a journal or blank page nearby.
Along with a pen.
This session includes time for journaling.
For now,
Allow yourself to settle in.
There's nothing to fix,
Nothing to figure out.
Just this moment and this breath.
Let's begin by settling into this moment.
Gently close your eyes if that feels comfortable.
Allow your shoulders to soften.
Let your hands rest wherever they feel at ease.
Take a slow breath in through your nose.
Take a gentle exhale out through your mouth.
Again,
Inhale slowly.
And exhale fully.
With each inhale,
Breathe in lightness,
Warmth,
And love.
With each exhale,
Release tension and stress and worry.
One more time,
Breathing in,
Steady and calm.
And breathing out,
Long and soft.
Now allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
Notice the quiet space you've created.
Notice that you are here.
Present,
Fully aware,
Supported.
Love.
The theme for today is listening with an open heart.
And I want to begin with something that goes deeper than most conversations around listening go.
Listening is more than hearing words.
It is more than waiting for your turn to speak.
It is more than being polite or appearing attentive while your mind is somewhere else.
Genuine listening,
The kind that changes things.
Is an act of profound presence.
Of choosing.
Fully and deliberately.
To set aside your own inner noise.
And be completely with another person.
In the reality of their experience.
Psychologist Carl Rogers spent his life studying what people most deeply need in order to feel fully understood.
What he found was both simple and remarkable.
Rogers believed that being truly heard,
Not just acknowledged,
Not just responded to,
But genuinely,
Fully,
Deeply heard.
Is one of the most healing experiences available to human beings.
He wrote,
When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you.
Without trying to take responsibility for you.
Without trying to mold you.
It feels good.
It feels good to get the feelings out.
Rogers described empathetic listening as the ability to enter another person's private world and to see it from the inside.
To set aside your own assumptions,
Your own reactions,
Your own need to fix or advise or reassure.
And simply be present.
With what is true for them in this moment.
Not waiting for your turn to speak.
Not managing the conversation towards a particular outcome.
Not filtering what you hear through the lens of your own fears or needs.
Simply present.
Simply open.
Simply there.
That kind of listening,
Rogers found,
Does something extraordinary.
It creates safety.
It builds trust.
It allows people to move from the surface of what they are saying into the truth of what they are feeling.
And in that truth,
Connection becomes possible.
In a way that no amount of clever conversation can manufacture.
I know this from one of the most difficult and most important experiences in my life.
When my husband was first diagnosed with cancer,
I was faced with something I'd never encountered before.
Someone I love deeply was navigating something terrifying and I wanted so much to help,
To fix,
To reassure,
To say the right thing.
But what I discovered,
Slowly and imperfectly,
Was that what he needed most was not my words.
It was my presence.
My willingness to be fully there,
Without letting my own fear fill all the space between us.
I learned to listen,
Not just to what was said.
But to what was not said,
To the silence.
To the spaces between the words.
The things that were too large or too frightening to be put into language yet.
I learned to reflect back what I heard.
Rather than rushing to respond.
To validate rather than to minimize.
To say,
I hear you.
I am here.
I am not going anywhere.
And what I found was that deep listening.
The kind that sets aside assumptions and simply receives what is offered.
Became a bridge between us.
A way of standing together in the storm.
Rather than each of us standing in it alone.
Listening deeply,
Without judgment,
Without assumption.
Without my own fear drowning out his voice.
Strengthens something between us that these difficulties and these challenges might otherwise have broken.
It did not take away the fear.
It did not make the circumstances easier.
But it made us feel less alone inside of them.
And that I've come to understand.
Is what genuine listening offers.
Not solutions,
Not reassurance.
But the profound healing gift of being truly present with another human being in whatever they are carrying.
Rogers wrote that the greatest gift you can give another person is your pure attention.
Today,
That is your invitation.
Not to say the right thing.
Not to fix or solve or reassure.
But to offer your full,
Open door.
Undivided presence.
To someone who needs to be heard.
Take a moment now and bring your awareness back to your breath.
Inhale slowly.
And exhale gently.
I want to invite you into a brief body awareness moment before we move into journaling.
Notice where you're holding tension right now.
Perhaps in your jaw,
Perhaps in your shoulders.
Feel anywhere in your body that feels tight or constricted.
Now imagine setting that down for a moment.
Not forever,
Just for now.
You can move your body a little bit if you need to.
Loosening.
Letting go.
Letting any tension flow out.
And release.
Notice what it feels like to create a little more space within yourself.
A little more stillness,
A little more room for something other than your own inner noise.
That space.
That stillness.
That is where genuine listening begins.
Not out there.
In here.
Now I invite you to turn inward and explore this theme more deeply through journaling.
This is your journal prompt today.
When was the last time I truly felt heard?
And how can I offer that same presence to someone in my life today?
You might also explore,
Is there someone in my life Who needs me to listen more deeply right now?
What gets in the way of me being fully present when someone's speaking to me?
Allow your thoughts to flow without editing or judgment.
Simply let whatever wants to be expressed come onto the page.
It is time to bring your journaling to a close.
Take a slow breath in.
And a soft breath out.
I'll share an affirmation now.
You're welcome to repeat it silently or out loud,
Letting the words settle within your body.
Today,
I listen with an open heart.
Today,
I listen with an open heart.
I offer my presence with patience and care.
I offer my presence with patience and care.
Through listening,
I create deeper understanding and connection.
Through listening,
I create deeper understanding and connection.
Take one more breath.
Feeling grounded.
Support it.
And present.
Notice the softness within you.
Notice the love.
Thank you for giving yourself this time today.
Each time you return to this practice,
You're strengthening something essential.
Your capacity to be fully present with another human being.
Not just to hear their words,
But to receive them,
To let them land.
To honor the privilege of being trusted with someone else's truth.
That is not a small thing.
That is one of the most meaningful things one human being can offer another.
If you'd like to continue this daily practice with me,
Please follow me here on Insight Timer.
So you never miss a new session.
New guided practices are added regularly and I'd love to have you with me.
Until then,
Give someone your full attention today.
Not your advice,
Not your reassurance,
Just your presence.
That is the greatest gift you have to offer.
And it costs nothing except the willingness to truly be there.
May your day be filled with connection.
Openness and the quiet power of a heart that truly listens.
