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APNC Spring 2020- Mod 2 Lesson 2 Forum
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12 Replies
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This was a very informative discussion, I was given a lot to think about and work with. I enjoyed hearing everyone else’s wandering trip and I’m happy that it worked out well for everyone. Deep listening is a skill that everyone, regardless of career or lifestyle, that we should all strive to work toward. I was left with a lot of questions for myself, I’m looking forward to answering them with myself.
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Allyson,
I agree, deep listening is key. I always thought about it with people and aiming to provide them 100% attention and focus, and never thought much about the power of listening to nature. I tend to be more visual and smell oriented. I find that by breathing, meditating, and paying close attention to nature it settles the mind and body, while significant expanding awareness. This week I tried Michael’s energy exercise and was taken aback because I could actually feel the energy from a Maple tree I was meditating near, about 6 feet away on my left side at 10:00. A distinct vertical energy line (about 4 inches by a quarter inch) on the left side of my face was unmistakable. I was a bit startled and checked it again and it was there directly aligned with the tree. -
Yesterday morning I had a meeting with Ivy, one of the other faculty and student mentors here at EBI. Many of you have probably connected with her or have received an email from her at some point.
During our meeting we were literally talking about deep listening and embracing compassion during these times and current events. And in our conversation I began thinking about how nature practices compassion and deep listening and I brought up the fascinating relationship that trees have with one another. And that trees do talk with each other! It has been proven with science! They speak through releasing pheromones into the air or through a symbiotic relationship with mycelium that relay distress signals from one tree to the other nearby trees. Trees communicate in order to support each other and to send healing nutrients that another tree may desperately need.
Nature is an amazing teacher. And during this conversation it reminded Ivy and I that we must communicate with an open heart and listen deeply with an open heart with one another. We must learn to collaborate and be compassionate with one another if we are going to create a wholesome and thriving ecosystem. On a minor and major scale. And the greatest tool we can all practice is deep listening. And deep listening can only be manifested when we drop our judgments and criticisms so that we can listen without any filter inside of us getting in the way. The trees communicate with compassion and so can we. And just imagine the amount of compassion and healing that we can empower and create if the trees are able to do so without any eyes, ears, or mouths.
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Module 2, lesson 2. Stacy Prater-Vigil
In this session what I really connected to was The Deep Listening. It correlates with a book I’m reading from Michael Bungay-Stanier-called, The Advice Trap. It’s all about listening, and practicing refraining from offering advice or one’s own interpretation. I like what Michael Joseph said about the ebb and flow of clarity then questions, clarity then questions. It also correlates with my writing from last week the allowing and the action…the ebb and flow.
This also brings to mind the ebb and flow of the natural order of things. When I am super inspired or happy I know that it will eventually subside into a more reflective, darker mood.
In allowing or giving space to this tide, we can allow a bigger world to exist within and without ourselves. When I practiced deep listening with a client this week, I noticed all the times I wanted to interject with my own perceptions, opinions, feedback, etc. Refraining and going back to deep listening, staying curious and BREATHING…there was SO MUCH SPACE for real problem solving from the clients own wisdom, not mine! There was a time when I felt scared that wasn’t doing enough for that client so I bravely asked if they were interested in my feedback. Of course they said yes and we got to move forward, deeper into the “issue”.
I used my own nature connection by remembering to use my soft vision, or my soft listening, like not trying too hard but just “BE” in the presence of GREAT NATURE!
I also have the Sacred Questions posted on my coaching works space and they are indeed sacred to aways use as an anchor to move things forward, especially used in synchronicity with DEEP LISTENING. -
The past two weeks have found me lacking any social time due to preparing a client for re-opening today. However, I was able to do some deep listening to some of my oldest friends–trees. I have a young tree in my front yard that I planted a couple of years ago. And I am certain it greets me every time I walk past. I have watched it grow and change, everyday looking familiar, yet completely new. The changes it is going through sometimes feel like it’s responding to the changes we (humans) are all going through. It almost seems like the tree is empathizing with the humans around it. Ironically, I have always said that trees “stand up” to everything. They are my “stand tall” friends.
I squeezed in a bit of time this past week to get some yard work caught up and was doing much of it by this same tree. I was feeling somewhat alone (not lonely) by that time and knew that digging in with my hands would help. As has happened in the past, when I deeply listened to nature, it answered with a reward for the asking. A Monarch butterfly perched on a nearby blossom, still soaked with morning dew, and stayed with me as I worked for more than two hours.
Between that tree and the butterfly, nature reminded me that I have many friends, just not all human. That the strength to stand tall and the confidence of sharing self-beauty, in whatever form, were always there. Soon there would come another opportunity for deep listening with a human friend. But until then, I listened to the friends with me.
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I am notorious for getting hung up on the advice trap that @StacyLPV mentioned. It happened a couple of times last week until I opened up our homework and was reminded about deep listening. The most recent full moon and lunar eclipse energy felt really intense and totally aligned with some dark shadows arising for me. I had to remind myself, like Stacey, of the ebb and flow, the light / dark continuum and that just as much good can come from working with my shadows. This time I worked with them in the form of yelling my perspective and truth at my partner – not a great way to find harmony with another person. The following night I committed to deep listening. My partner shared more with me in an hour than he’s shared with me in a month. He’d say something, there would be silence, he’d say more, silence, he brought up a problem and contemplated it out loud, no solution, he shared his feelings. I listened, there was space, enough space for me to also hear wisdom – wisdom in the form of a gentle question which helped him reflect and to go deeper. It didn’t come from a place of my perspective or agenda. He didn’t have an answer and he didn’t have to. I gave him space to marinate in his own wisdom.
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Yes the skill of deep listening is critical right now to move positively past this complex juncture of racial oppression and COVID, an unprecedented but also promising time in US/global history if we listen deeply to the voices that are little heard in the human and more than human world.
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Great insights, Daniel. I often think about the communication between tress while I am in the forest especially in aspen groves as there are such a tight community off clones. I have an idea for a children’s book on this topic I can share at some point. I hope to write it soon!
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One peculiar thing happened yesterday. I was listening to a talk a few days ago about releasing things that we have outgrown, so that we can create space for our upcoming intention, as well as the work & relationships it required. Yesterday I was at my usual sit spot at my back terrace doing the 7 breath meditation & somehow the things that I noticed seemed to convey that very idea. The slim tree at my backyard waved around because of the gentle wind, communicating ease of movement due to lightness in weight. Another tree has a few brown leaves which will soon fall away, but at the same time has some flower buds that will soon bloom, showing me cycles that happen naturally. The synchronicities really stood out & I felt awed.
Reading Daniel’s post convince me even more that nature does communicate with me. In order for me to be aware of this communication I need to make time to quieten my mind, as well as pay attention & be willing to receive any message that nature wants to convey.
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I just returned from a few days camping in the woods with three dear soul sisters. One of them posed the question to the group, “What has this quarantine period revealed in your relationships at home?” Without agreeing to nor needing to name it, I felt us each practicing deep listening as each person shared. There was no comparison of experiences. There was no judgement. We held space together for each person’s journey. And in that space, new revelations came about. I think we were each talking from a place in our subconscious, processing out loud as the words unraveled from the inside out. I wonder if this same rawness would have existed if even just one of us was not practicing deep listening.
Perhaps it was a coincidence, but I like to think not: as we were each sharing, the weather slowly turned more dark and grey. It even threatened us with a few drops of rain. It seemed to be reflecting the shadow work we had cultivated within ourselves. However, once we had all shared and lightened ourselves through that sharing, the dark clouds rolled away and turned into a crystal clear night with a blanket of stars overhead.
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@JessBuckley I nearly laughed out loud when I read your post, not because there was humor in it, but because I did the. exact. same. thing. to my partner. During the eclipse, out of seemingly nowhere, a voice burst from my inner shadows and pummeled him with an array of my truths and challenges in our relationship and current lifestyle. In no way was this initial approach productive or healthy. However, it did ultimately lead to me remembering to listen more deeply to his truth, and in turn, he finally opened up about things that he’d been suppressing and that had been weighing us down in our partnership. Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing!
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So many great insights from the session and also with what everyone has shared. I had organised to do a wander with a client of mine together before I left, we were both really excited to be sharing this together, unfortunately the day came around and she had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances. I was very much looking forward to putting this into practice but we will try and connect soon to do it again.
In response to deep listening, I believe this to be a really important skill and one that I relied on heavily when nursing, it is a skill that has helped me care for my patients in a more holistic way. I get alot out of deep listening when in nature alone, there is so much to learn from within and the outer that can guide us in profound ways.
