The power of listening

FB April 25, 2015, 12:50 a.m.

It is such a gift to have people who put aside themselves to listen to you. On the flip side, it is also a wonder to see how one can be transformed by listening intently to someone else. Sometimes you give someone your full attention and minimize yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, and your opinions, for that person's sake, and then all of a sudden the negative things that occupied the forefront of your energies and focus--the perceived issues, the problems, the baggage--they are minimized, too. For some reason these trials and tribulations are not such a big deal anymore. It suddenly becomes apparent that not only is there a certain degree of illusion found in being self-consumed but also that the solution to being self-consumed can simply be to stop consuming self. We tend to only feed the things we know or have in our closest presence, and consequently we are prone to getting stuck in a cycle of self-focus. When we give our ears, our energies, and our commitment of presence to others, then it's no longer a question of, "Am I full or not?" Rather, it is "Who or what does this person need me to be right now?" and you might not recognize yourself in the process because listening is changing you, forcing you to adapt for someone else's needs, and through listening you are fed the things you never could feed yourself. Then you must wonder amidst all the things that you thought you were lacking, the things whose absence must have been the cause of your alleged starvation: was I even that hungry in the first place, or was I fed just the thing I needed...? (and that thing isn't myself)