Do you Know How to Listen?

Developing Self Awareness: Why It's Essential for Lasting Change and How to Practice It

At this very moment, every square inch of your body that has functioning nerves is communicating with you.

Are you listening?

Do you know how to listen?

Here in the West, we tend to pride ourselves on our mental abilities; our ability to think, rationalize, form opinions (about everything), to judge, to solve complex problems and think our way through situations. We have advanced technology the likes of which we have never seen. We have holograms, cord free ear phones, iPhones galore, self-driving cars. We have instant pots, instant food, jet packs, never ending bits of information strewn across the internet; and yet our health as a whole is suffering more and more each year.

Oddly enough, despite all of our technological progress, we have become utterly disconnected from our bodies, and as a result our health, our minds, and the very quality of our lives have diminished more and more. We have issues abound, and yet very few seem to know what's wrong with us and how to fix our problems in any long lasting way.

I know this is starting to sound a bit grim, but bear with me; for in the very near future, I foresee a re-emergence of a lost forgotten Art, the Art of Self Awareness.

From my personal observation, people want change in their lives in some way, shape or form. We have all sorts of tips for how to change, but no one ever seems to touch on the main obstacle that stands in the way of long lasting change. That is; without Self Awareness, change is impossible, or at best short lived.

But what is Self Awareness? In short, it is the ability to sense, viscerally, your body and mind from the inside. Sounds weird and a little "woo woo" right? Well it's not. It's your birthright, something you were gifted with from the time you entered into this world; and yet most of us live our lives without ever considering it, much less developing it.

As such, we live our lives day in and day out; stuck in a stream of thoughts, caught in our heads, or worse our phones, sleep walking through life, wondering what's wrong with our bodies that we feel trapped in, instead of living in.

Our bodies endlessly communicate to our Awareness through feelings and sensation for you to take notice of or act on every waking second. The problem is that we have forgotten HOW to FEEL; and if we allow ourselves to feel or better yet communicate those feelings it is seen as "weak" or being "too sensitive".

The ironic thing is, it takes an incredibly strong person to stand in front of raw emotions, pain and discomfort and not look away. It takes a strong person to watch their own thoughts flow through their mind. To see your own hypocrisies, the lies and stories you tell yourself, the judgments, the ridicules you unknowingly pass on others, to see your own faults and bad habits, and to accept that it comes from you.

It takes a strong person to accept their bodies, its limitations, all of its perceived strengths as well as faults and to Love and cherish that body for no other reason other than the fact that it's yours. It takes a strong person to accept themselves as they are, and to change not because of what others may think, but because they feel for themselves the need to change to better themselves and those around them. Best of all, it takes a strong person to accept the fact that the only way the world will change is if it comes first from within yourself.

Self Awareness is natural for children, but for us adults it can seem like a daunting challenge to develop; and it is. The process is slow, confusing, full of downsides, pitfalls and turmoils as you learn to systemically break down and empty the contents on your mind and develop a deep and profound sense of self.

But that is where your liberation lies. For along the way you will meet the best companion you've ever had and finally find that one thing that you've always felt was missing from your life.

Yourself.