How Listening with Compassion and Curiosity can Build Your Soul Wealth

The gift of listening

January is the hibernating time of year.

We set goals and intentions for the year ahead and sometimes I think what we really need to do is pause and listen.

As I seek out my own health goals and set an intention for the year ahead to be clear of where I invest my energy I notice how pushing through and expectations can interfere with my self-care and my goals.

To me listening is about checking in with our bodies, our minds, our hearts and our souls and getting guidance on the best ways to move forward.

I wrote a haiku this week that went like this:

Today I check in

Thoughts are only information

I am free to be me

I hope you can look at that differently

And what does it mean to be free to be ourselves?

Not the selves we are for others or the selves others expect us to be, the authentic selves, the selves we want to be. Being free to show up how we want in our world.

I find this is where our stress or trauma shows up, if we have expectations or stories created from places of stress, or trauma in our life experience, it can affect our bodies, our nervous system, our thoughts, our emotions and our spirit. It can show up in thoughts or beliefs that can interfere with our goals, our belief in our ability to meet our goals, our progress and moving forward.

I was talking to my boss about my interpretation of something. It was a judgmental interpretation, a critical interpretation of myself and she said "I hope you can look at that differently".

I hope you can look at that differently.

Later I was talking to a writing coach about how stressed I was about how seldom I was showing up for my writing. I felt stressed and he said, "maybe you could look at that differently".

Looking at things differently means we begin to listen to the quieter voice in our mind, the one that holds our soul whispers. The voice that doesn't push through when we need a break or criticize our efforts, the voice that knows how to repair, reflect, regenerate and renew. The voice that listens and focuses on self-care. Often looking at things differently means listening differently, acting differently, and moving differently. It also means listening to our intuition and trusting our intuition.

Holding space for listening and looking at things differently

How can we hold space for this listening and this looking differently? This space is the self-care that supports soul wealth and soul wisdom. Often seeking opportunities for 5 or 10 minutes to take a break, breathe, create space and seek 5 or 10 % more joy in our day is enough.

We have much to learn to check-in with our souls, our minds, our bodies and our energy.

You see if we take time to look at things differently and practice self-care to fill our cup then we have wealth. We have the wealth of slowing down, the wealth of listening to all our parts and all our voices. This type of wealth opens up doors and possibilities, one moment at a time.

And really all we need to do is check in and remember that everything is information: thoughts are information, opinions are information, expectations are information, energy is information.

And when we take time to look at this information with curiosity, kindness, gentleness and an open heart we can tell ourselves new stories about how to love ourselves, how to be kind to ourselves, how to be compassionate and how to build our soul wealth because we clear the pathways through our trauma and/or our stress to new beginnings.

I hope you take time today to listen and look at things differently, especially the things that are causing you stress or anxiety.

If you find the compassion and the gentleness and the kindness to accept and be aware that any thought or experience are simply information and they can be looked at differently, that is how healing happens and soul wealth builds. I hope you take time to seek moments of joy and in those moments, listen to your body, mind, heart and soul. You are worth it.

Blessings on your day, love, Tanya Levy aka heartlady

Counsellor

Digital Artist

Educator

linktr.ee/heartladyinspiration