What do you hear?

What do you Hear?

Are you listening?  What do you hear?

I spent another day focusing on my sense of hearing.  Being curious about what I heard, and really listening to what people were saying (not just their words) and the sounds around me.

What did I learn?

There are so many constant sounds that I really didn’t seem to notice.  Christmas music that my husband has on constantly but at such a low volume that I had to almost strain to hear.  Cars driving by the house, the ticking of the clock in my office.

Interesting things I heard; the squeak of my new boots (when will that stop?), the groan of the dog when she stretches out, the creak of the bathroom door when it opens and closes, the clanging and knocking of our boiler when the furnace kicks on (200 year old house).

Then I attended a yoga class and heard my breath.  Inhales and exhales.  Surely I breathe all day long, but hadn’t noticed any sound.  Only in the focused quiet of class did I clearly hear and experience my breath coming into my lungs, filling them and going out again.  As I expanded my hearing range, I heard the person next to me in class breathing, then the whole class breathing, almost in unison.  Only in a yoga class can you breathe loudly as a sign of cohesiveness with others. 

Then we began to move and I heard my bones.  Those 60 year old joints that I can sometimes feel, I can only actually hear when there is quiet. 

And now there goes the dog, having a dream, maybe chasing a rabbit and though she is behind me, I can clearly hear her snoring and grunting, even a little peeping noise. 

And when I am working, and focused on listening, I hear more than words.  I hear hope, and pain, and frustration, and anger and love.  And I pause, because there is always more to hear if I remain quiet. 

And then, I hear my husband.  When I let go of my own words, and listen, I hear his love and his pain.  Then I know if I let go of my defensiveness, my need to control, my own need to be heard that I will hear more. 

So I continue, I listen to my children, my father, my aunt, my friends.  All of the conversations I had today that I decided to focus on my ability to not only hear them with my ears, but listen with my heart.

I decided that all of my senses are ultimately connected to my heart, and that the more I focus on each of them individually, the closer I can feel the effect it has on my heart and my emotions. 

I am sure now, that the reason we surround ourselves with so much noise is so that we don’t have to feel all the feelings.  The noise just drowns out the heart.  Because the feelings are not always “good” ones. 

In increasing my capacity to feel all my feelings, not only the “good” ones, I have expanded my appreciation and gratitude for all the things in my life, whether they be good, bad or  ugly.

I encourage you to join me on this sensory exploration.  I am eager to hear what you learn about yourself.

With Love and Joy,

Sheila