Are you feeling paralyzed in the face of everything that is happening in our world right now, wishing you could do something?

Not long ago, someone on my mailing list replied to one of my emails about listening to the wisdom of the body.  She wondered, how can we take time to care about listening to the body when war rages all around us? She criticized me for speaking about inner awareness while children are literally starving. 

I sat with her words for a long time and really thought about how I could respond with dignity and authenticity.  After all, it is a luxury to have the time and space to work on ourselves, and there are certainly many people who do not have the possibility to do so. 

As I reflected, I remembered how important it is to listen—to yourself, to one another, to the natural world—and how different our world might look if we listened a bit more to one another. Listening deeply is not turning away from the crises we are facing.  In fact, it is an act of revolution to listen well in a culture that teaches us to communicate superficially. When you are listened to, you can be vulnerable with others in ways that, at least for me,  are simply not possible when no one is really hearing you. 

The practice of listening to the body is one that allows for deeper presence in your day to day, and cultivates your capacity to listen well to others. This opens the door for authentic connection and is a direct response to loneliness. 

While it is completely true that not everyone has the privilege to do this kind of work, it is also true that if the ones who do have the possibility to practice listening do so, we contribute to a cultural shift as we re-integrate deep listening into our lives. 

What do you think this world would look like if our leaders listened to one another, to their constituents? 

What do you think your childhood might have looked like if the adults around you listened well to your needs, even the ones you didn’t have the words to express?

 How do you think your relationships might look if you listened a bit more? 

Listening deeply is an act of sacred activism. This is something immediate that you can begin to practice, both because it is nourishing unto itself and is also a contradiction to the overwhelm that paralyzes.  It is how you begin to reclaim the parts of yourself that have been silenced or numbed by the speed and noise of our culture. It’s how you find the steadiness to face the suffering of the world without shutting down or turning away.

So much of the loneliness we feel is rooted in the overwhelming rhythm of our lives. Remembering and cultivating your capacity to listen—to yourself, to others, to the natural rhythm of life—is a direct response to the systems that oppress us.