The Art of Listening

The world

The world is so much bigger than pretty much anyone could possibly wrap their minds around. And it’s definitely got a hell of a lot bigger in the last couple of decades alone. It’s important to keep an open mind and reserve time for simply observing and listening to various environments, in order to gather information that extends beyond your own personal agenda. All environments are foreign now. There’s no escaping it, and it’s important to cultivate the courage and skill to better familiarize oneself with the unfamiliar. Everything has been dramatically changing for some time and will continue to do so. Changes in tech, culture, phenomenological history have resulted in new environments and a bigger, more diverse, and more complex world.

A lot of people have a tendency to stick to the familiar. It’s difficult to not be changed by listening to the world. You come to learn that the unfamiliar is not so scary or difficult to process. You come to learn that different versions of yourself exist, and exploring the world more will generally result in a more open mind.

Modern cities caused radical shifts in every aspect of our world. A lot of people became more skilled in the art of listening to new environments and tolerating every type of new person. Modern realities have sometimes created survival mechanisms to cope with the adaptation. There are a great many things to notice from living environments, and the masking, isolation, the dampening of our passions and senses of wonder, the states of rest and passivity we often occupy, might all limit the information you can acquire and mindfully adapt to. Some people are so focused on your own productivity or the attention they bring to themselves, they reduce their ability to listen to their environments and reflect on them.

Others

When you listen well to another person, it relaxes them and makes it easier for them to open up. I think this is an interesting phenomenon in and of itself. When you have the patience and interest to offer someone your undivided attention, to understand them and feel what they feel, it creates such an absolutely powerful impact. It’s important to surround yourself with high quality listeners who care about you. Anyone who only half way listens to you might seem survivable, but this life is about thriving, and it’s not worth experiencing yourself as any less than totally fascinating and invigorating. Loneliness is one of the worst conditions a human being can suffer.

Our society has become a difficult place for deep listening. Classrooms are fuller, there are bigger crowds, there’s a lot of noise, and there are a lot of people who choose to be poor listeners. Listening well to others also serves to keep your mind open, and an open mind has more room for more life. People who refuse to listen well should be avoided. It’s not healthy and empathy is a finicky human emotion that requires consistent nurturing. Personal agendas continue to diminish experiences of empathy whereas in other cases, levels of empathy have been further increasing. It’s important to listen well to others not only to engage the world on a deeper level, but to pay more careful attention to the agendas of others. When limiting yourself to avoid bad people is not an option, it’s important to develop skills for getting to know new people and listening to them well. Encountering a bad person is not necessarily such a bad thing, especially when you stay listening to your own self well.

Yourself

Listening to yourself well is such a key ability in modern America. You have to be able to know yourself well, take care of yourself, and believe in yourself. There’s often not enough time for pure reflection. Everything is go go go. Even yoga classes have turned highly productive. Sometimes the best things in life come from things that are differently productive, that are romantic and adventurous. The self goes so far beyond harmonizing to practical realities or competing with modern people. We are naturally creative and playful beings, and the ability to be alone with one’s self and build perspective and a sense of imagination is critical for your evolution and courage in this life. Feelings matter far more than we were taught in school. Feeling bored is not a joke. We naturally generate so much energy from the things that deeply enliven us. Parties don’t need to be destructive, they can be creative, liberating, and experimental. American culture often has a work and mind-numbing party culture. There is crippling self-consciousness when it comes to the making of art. When you listen to yourself well and accustom yourself to experimenting with your self-expression and dream life, you can work to transcend the mundane and discover a world made of pure magic. Magic made possible by you being you.

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