Learning to really listen to another human being - beyond just his or her words - is critical to good communication. Valuable exchanges between human beings can occur only when each listens carefully to the other and tries sincerely to understand the other person's meaning. Much anger and frustration with others could be avoided if we truly understood one another.
Constant thoughts running through our minds is a form of talking, and we can't listen to another (including our Higher Power) if we are still talking.
Do I really listen?
Higher Power, help me be quiet enough within to listen to others today. By trying to understand another, let me learn something about myself.
__________________
'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
" Constant thoughts running through our minds is a form of talking, and we can't listen to another (including our Higher Power) if we are still talking. "
Definately something I need to work on. I'm trying- sometimes with more success than others. It does take extra effort to really listen. My diesase loves to talk to me while I'm trying to listen.
Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillnessto stop doing and focus on just being."
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the momentalso called mindfulnessis a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV.
Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened. They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have more satisfying relationships.
Mindfulness is at the root of Buddhism, Taoism, and many Native-American traditions, not to mention yoga. It's why Thoreau went to Walden Pond; it's what Emerson and Whitman wrote about in their essays and poems.
"Everyone agrees it's important to live in the moment, but the problem is how," says Ellen Langer, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Mindfulness. "When people are not in the moment, they're not there to know that they're not there." Overriding the distraction reflex and awakening to the present takes intentionality and practice.
Living in the moment involves a profound paradox: You can't pursue it for its benefits. That's because the expectation of reward launches a future-oriented mindset, which subverts the entire process. Instead, you just have to trust that the rewards will come. There are many paths to mindfulnessand at the core of each is a paradox. Ironically, letting go of what you want is the only way to get it. ~ from ~ The art of Now.
-- Edited by Tasha on Monday 28th of April 2014 01:59:20 PM
"Constant thoughts running through our minds is a form of talking, and we can't listen to another (including our Higher Power) if we are still talking."
(Mike B. posted so much of what I was thinking when I read your posting, Pappy.)
