Empowered Listening

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It takes courage to listen in a transformative way. Humans often are unknowing in how they intrench themselves in unyielding listening, especially when it relates to their horses.  Letting go of our identity, fear and judgment, will remove our desire to always listen to respond.

Many of our needs will be cared for in our ability to really listen. Removing our constant urgency to reply creates an environment for receiving the gift of another’s experience.  If we find ourselves settling for less, we disempower ourselves and the horse, in an uncertain future.

Every Saturday for many years I would drive 45 minutes to another rural town to teach horsemanship. On several occasions my friend Stephanie would join me. We constantly would talk about our individual philosophies. These conversations would often develop into an  enflamed heated exchange.  The result of this would be a stressful environment inside myself as I arrived to the horse facility of the day.

I would quickly tell myself to overcome the chaotic feeling I was having inside.  I was in full denial of how my emotional state would energetically emote into the environment. I no longer can deny, the students and their horses felt the inner enflamed energy I entered the arena with.

I desired to find a way to shift the experience I was having with my friend Stephanie. I certainly understood that this was not an isolated reoccurring incident with just her. It was rearing itself in all my relationships.

Out of my desire to acquire more tools, I went to a seminar. I found myself having a major breakthrough as I listened to the seminar leader explain that the most powerful skill in communication is in our “listening”. He continued to share the distinction between hearing and listening.

Hearing, is the minds recognition of sound through the function of the ear drum by formulating it’s source and meaning. Listening,  is an interactive engagement of being fully present to the importance of the message that is being conveyed. It is not engaging thought to formulate a response. When  we listen, we leave the one who is communicating that we value and have received the importance of their message.

This new achievement resulted in my ability to develop my self as a student of every interaction.  I began to learn volumes of meaningful details about the people in my life.  I found my friend Stephanie was a woman I clearly needed to understand and was loaded with wisdom.

As for the horse, imagine the potential the human has if we would engage the equine and empower them with our ability to just listen.

Receive life’s gifts through empowering all living beings with your listening 

By Donnette Hicks