let's talk...

  Can we talk for a minute?  I feel like we haven't been communicating very well lately.  It seems like we aren't really hearing one another, like we aren't listening to each other anymore.    

​     Can you feel that?  Is there anyone in your life that you could have that conversation with?  It seems as if communication should be so much easier these days with all of the technology we have at our fingertips, but it seems to only be making things worse.  We've stopped listening, really listening to one another.  We're so quick to have a reply at the ready instead of just sitting back and...listening.  Giving full attention to the person in front of us and acknowledging their words.  I stepped away from Facebook several months back, in fact it was around election time.  Every day when I would get on to see what my friends and family were up to, I was seeing awful words being slung at people-left and right.  Friends were unfriending one another over different political views and reasoning.  It was vicious and repulsive at times.  People weren't even stopping to listen to what others had to say because they were 'listening' with their eyes and fingers.  Click, click, click went their keypads with their instant replies as they skimmed through a comment they didn't like or that didn't resonate with them. 

     How much could have been solved if, instead of that quick reply, they stopped to acknowledge the fact that their friend had different views because they had a different life experience, with different emotions, feelings, knowledge and thoughts about a specific event?  Maybe just by acknowledging that, a confrontation could have been prevented.  A nugget of wisdom could have grown into a golden opportunity to understand someone a little better and opened up their world view a little more.

​     Let me just say this-you can't have a good conversation if the only words that you are hearing are your own.  

​     We can be so quick to confront anyone who doesn't hold the same beliefs, feelings, and agenda that we do.  How is that going to solve anything?  It's having all of those different beliefs, feelings and agendas that lead to the ability to fix situations, to expand insight and gain forward progress.  Ingenuity, invention, creativity, problem-solving-they all didn't come out of everyone thinking the same thing.

​      Consider this-what if those beliefs that you are holding so tightly to, aren't even your own?  We often absorb our beliefs from those around us, or from what matter we are subjecting our senses to on a regular basis.  What do you need to release to become a better listener?  Are you staying true to yourself in your beliefs, or are you placating someone or something else?  

​     Politics are tricky.  It's not something that I like to talk about or even, honestly, learn too much about.  I'm thankful that there are those who have deep insight in that arena.  I can learn from them-whether I hold the same beliefs as them or not.  These days, the political arena is extremely dicey-there are a lot of decisions being made that affect mass numbers of people.  These people could very well be your next door neighbors.  I urge you to listen to them, I mean truly listen to them-ears, mind, heart.  Listen to their stories and their struggles.  Maybe some nugget of wisdom that you can offer them, if you really listen, can help turn that struggle into a challenge that they can overcome.

​     We're all in this together.  We all live on the same planet and breathe the same air.  We all have to choose how we are going to live with one another and choosing to beat one another down for opinions and beliefs will not solve any of the issues that are at hand in this world today.  Open up your ears, your hearts and your minds...and listen.  There's so much more to words than just what is being said.  Words carry the emotions, thoughts, feelings, vibrations and life experience of the person that is saying them.  Take it all in, patiently and respectfully listen to all of it.  I guarantee you'll learn something new about someone that you thought you knew very well.  It's all in the listening.

Love and Light~
Mandi

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