The art of conversation is not about reacting, liking, or quickly scrolling past. It’s about paying attention and being alert. It’s allowing sounds to flow into our delicate ear drums and then be assessed and interpreted by our curious brains. Listen to what your friend has to say with attention and interest. And the sounds we hear don’t always have to be voices and words—listen to the healing sound of birdsong or rain falling on autumn leaves. One of my favorite activities at night is to listen to sounds that are in the room, and then in the yard, and then in the woods past the house, and sometimes even all the way into the next valley. When I lived in New York City, I would practice listening to the street sounds late at night and I’d be able to distinguish streets farther and farther away as I did this. Notice how your hearing becomes ultra-sensitive and discerning when you pay attention to it. The more sensitive you are to the physical sense of hearing, the more you’ll find yourself easily listening to your intuition. The stillness of listening awakens in us vibrations that are so ancient we can hear them in our heart.
