Listening Begins Within

I never meant to become a deep listener.
It wasn’t a skill I set out to master.

It happened because I became curious — I wanted to understand what I was really feeling inside myself.

To do that, I had to slow down and begin noticing.
My automatic thoughts.
My emotions.
The sensations and constrictions moving through my body.

I wanted to know what was true for me — beneath all the noise.

At first, it was messy. My mind raced ahead of itself, trying to fix, explain, or make sense of what I felt. But little by little, awareness grew.

I started to recognize my thoughts as just thoughts — passing clouds, not the sky itself. Some weren’t even mine. They belonged to old stories, voices from the past, expectations I had absorbed without question.

When I could notice them without judgment, something began to shift. My emotions softened. My body loosened. My mind quieted down.

That’s when I began to truly listen.

As I grew more fluent in listening to myself, something unexpected happened — I began to hear others differently, too.

This week, I was sitting with a new client. It was our first session, and I knew nothing about him.
As he spoke, I could feel the precision in his voice — every sentence clipped and measured. Something in me whispered, Ask him about his standard of performance.

When he described it, I said, “You sound like you’ve been in the military.”

He smiled and lifted a photograph: himself as a naval captain, stationed on a submarine for five years.

That moment wasn’t about intuition — it was about listening. I could feel the energy behind his words before I understood the story.

Listening that way helps people feel seen in a place words can’t reach. Energy gets noticed, honored, and sometimes released.

Because I learned to listen to myself, I can listen to others.

What I love most is helping people learn how to do the same — to listen inwardly, to notice their thoughts, emotions, and sensations, and to discern, Is this truly mine?

When we listen this way, the mind quiets, the heart opens, and what’s true becomes clear.