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.

I interviewed James Robbins today on my podcast, My Love of Life Energy. Author of The Call to Climb.

I hadn’t met James before today. Yet when I glanced through his Instagram, I felt a warmth in my chest, the kind that says: yes, this will be good.

And it was.

From the moment he began, his words pulled me in. He calls himself “not a great writer.” But as I scrolled through the first three chapters of his book, I found myself leaning forward, hungry for more, clicking purchase without hesitation.

In a faded ballroom near the San Francisco Airport, I stood on paisley carpet, the chandeliers trembling as planes roared overhead. Richard Strozzi, a sixth-degree black belt in Aikido, had just said:
“Stop and feel your feet.”

I couldn’t.

I knew my feet were there, but I couldn’t feel them. That moment opened a doorway I didn’t know I was seeking—a longing to experience myself from the inside out.