Word of the Month for July 2017: LISTEN

Listen

The Virtue is Listen and the Saboteur is Ignore.

Listening begins with an empty mind and a full heart.

Listening is different than hearing because true listening does not require our ears or the power to hear sound, true listening happens through the heart. The inner voice is the voice we listen to when we are lost or when we have painful, unanswered questions. Listening to this voice does not require the ability to hear sound, it requires the ability to feel the vibratory power of love.

When we listen to the inner voice we are listening to the highest intelligence we possess, which is love. We listen to our heart when we are listening for the answers to our current dilemmas.  — What is the best way to handle this? I feel lost, what do I need to do? We look to love to give us the answers that we are looking for, to inspire us, to help us reach our greatest potential in life. Love is also the inspiration for our highest intentions in life.

When we ignore this type of listening and instead choose to hear what others are talking about, we can lose our way to finding the answers to our questions. Sometimes we fall into that trap of thinking that everyone else has all the answers and somehow you were left out of those conversations. This can lead us to ignore our inner voice and listen to the noisy, outer voice of the opinionated. — You should do it this way. I think you should do it the way I do. In the end, you are responsible for the choices that you make.

It may seem easier to listen to the opinionated because those answers are loud and available, the opinions of others can also make us feel like we belong and if it turns out that their answers were wrong, we always have someone to blame. Inner listening is the voice of reason, it is intuitive and practical and those answers are unique to you. I realize uniqueness is not always desirable, but the intuition comes from your very own heart.

The heart is peculiar in that when you consult with it, it will not tell you to berate others, it will not tell you to ignore or mistreat others. It is the seat of intelligence and it will encourage you to go beyond what you thought you could do. It will encourage you to listen to the differing viewpoints and commit to a collective, interactive solution, now that kind of listening power takes courage. The heart is where the answers are, as well as the courage to act on those answers.

Listening promotes differing viewpoints, ignoring produces ignorance, listening to others brings creative solutions, ignoring others leads to defiance, listening is the great peacemaker and ignoring is the great divider.