Hi,
Welcome to another episode of Mindful Minutes with Matthew.
Today we're going to try a practice which is called mindful listening.
You see,
We're surrounded by sounds all day long,
Every place we are,
But a lot of times we're not really connecting to what those sounds are and what we're hearing.
Or we get distracted by the sounds we hear,
We let them carry us off to a place and we are not as mindful.
So this practice is about mindful listening and like all of our practices we're going to start in a seated or lying down position,
Whichever is comfortable for you.
Today I'm seated here next to the fireplace and I'm up against a brick wall,
Which for me,
Just for today,
I felt like wanting to sit in a really straight position.
It's something you could try and experiment with,
See what is comfortable for you,
But I wanted to sit kind of upright and it gives me a chance to really put my lower back right against the wall and it feels really supportive for me.
And I've got my feet on the floor,
I'm just going to rest my hands right down on my,
Just above my knees and get in a comfortable space.
I always like to start with one cleansing breath,
Just to kind of settle in and as you settle in,
Just notice how your body just rests in whatever position that you're in,
Wherever it's touching and the support that it's feeling from the chair or the mattress or the floor or wherever you are.
And after just a couple breaths,
What I want you to do is I want you to just shift your attention,
I'm just going to put a timer on so I don't keep us too long,
Okay,
Sorry,
Just to kind of help me,
But after a couple of just breaths as you relax into your posture,
What I want you to do is to shift all of your energy and focus to your ears.
And notice what you can hear.
Maybe you can hear the sound of my voice.
You may hear yourself play a few notes,
But you may hear your voice.
You may hear your voice,
But you may hear your voice.
You may hear yourself breathing.
Just notice the sounds as you hear them.
Notice anything about them without any kind of judgment.
They're not good,
They're not bad,
They just are there,
They're present here in the environment.
Maybe you can hear other people or animals in your space or outside of your space.
I heard a loud bird outside the window.
I hear my dog walking on the floor above me.
I hear other people in my space making noise.
And if you find yourself at any time getting distracted by the sounds that you're hearing,
Maybe,
You know,
Thinking,
Oh,
What's that person doing?
Why are they doing that?
Just bring yourself right back to your breath and listening.
Just hearing what's present in your space.
Maybe you hear an air conditioner or a heating unit.
Maybe it's really quiet where you are,
And you can notice the silence.
Notice the quietness.
And if it's really noisy and there's a lot of distracting noises,
Notice the moments of quiet in between the noises.
Mindful listening is a really powerful tool that you can use in every area of your life.
And you don't have to sit quietly and do it to become good at it,
But it helps.
The next time you're talking with somebody,
Whether it's a friend on a Zoom call,
Through work,
Whatever it is,
A client,
A customer,
I want you to just try to do this practice while you're with them.
Just really focus all of your energy and all of your attention on that person and what they're saying.
And really listen and try to hear deeply what they're really saying to you and see how that resonates.
And what I predict will happen is you'll notice that those people will really feel more heard by you.
There's my dog decided to bark just now.
So try mindful listening.
Spend some time with all of these practices.
You don't have to do them for very long.
And if you do them over and over again,
You will get better at them.
I promise.
So if it's hard for you to sit,
Do it for 30 seconds.
Try it for a minute.
See if you can do it a little bit longer each time you sit.
But just mix them up and find the ones that you really like.
But there's value in all these practices and I always welcome your comments,
Your notes,
Your experiences,
Anything that you got from it or anything you'd like to see differently or have questions about.
Please don't hesitate.
Just ping me with a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as quickly as I can.
So for now,
I wish you a day of mindfulness,
Of peace,
Of joy and an amazing afternoon.
Thanks.
