"Listening to oneself" is an icon in the new age
arena. Many spiritual and new age advocate the practice of” listening to
oneself”. When asked to listen, most people naturally expect to hear voices.
You sit for meditation, pull you full focus inward and expect to hear voices
giving you specific and enlightening guidance but all you hear is the mumbling
of your abdomen digesting lunch.
“Listening to oneself” is in fact very important for people
who wish to grow or heal. In order to know what exactly to do and how to
benefit from this practice there are two terms that need clarification.
First in the use of term “The Self” and second is the use of
the verbs “to hear” or “to listen”.
The Self is an immaterial aspect. You can't see the Self on
X-ray, ultra-sound or MRI imaging. The self does not reside in one specific
place in the body and can't be detected using technology. The Self is an energy
entity that resides parallel to the physical body but not in one specific
location. The Self is in every cell.
Different traditions associate the Self with different body
areas such as the heart, the abdomen or the third eye but these are only
symbolic reference points. The Self is actually everywhere.
Considering that the Self is energy, connecting to the Self
must involve understanding the laws of energy and learning how to apply them in
everyday life. Most relevant to this discussion, is the law of resonance and
dissonance.
Energy responds to other energies on the basis of
compatibility. Energies that are compatible, synchronize. They work together
well and are suitable to each other. Energies that are incompatible do not work
well together are unsuitable to each other and in many cases repel each other.
The language of the Self is the language of energy. Information
from the Self is conveyed using laws of
energy compatibility. In order to listen to the Self we need to learn its
language of resonance and dissonance.
Learning the language of the Self.
The energy body is
held within the physical body. The nervous system is responsible for
transmitting physiological information and as such plays a significant role in
holding and conveying energy information as well. This implies that the Self
conveys information in energetic form through the physical body, using the
nervous system as its carrier.
When the Self interacts with energies that are compatible to
it, the body relaxes. When the Self interacts with energies that are
incompatible to it, the body contracts.
Following is an exercise for articulating the sensation of
relaxation verses contraction.
Sit quietly, close your eyes and allow your body to relax.
Focus on the center of your diaphragm and notice how it feels at the beginning
of the exercise. Be with this sensation for a few minutes.
Now think about someone who significantly upsets you and use
your imagination to bring his or her image into the center of your diaphragm.
Notice how this image affects your body.
Once you have noticed the affect, allow the image to
disperse and re-focus your breathing as at the beginning of the exercise.
Once the diaphragm area has returned to the initial
sensation, think about someone you love dearly. Use your imagination and bring
his or her image into the center of your diaphragm and notice how this image
affects your body.
Once you have noticed the affect, allow the image to
disperse and re-focus your breathing. Continue to sit quietly allowing your
body to relax for a few more minutes and then end the exercise and open your
eyes.
Most likely you will have noticed that the upsetting image
caused contraction and the loving image caused relaxation. If you didn’t feel
this difference you may need to keep practicing in order to re-activate the
ability to feel.
Listening to the Self means listening to the way the people
and events of our life affect us.
We can know that by noticing the way our body responds to
what is going on in our life or to the people we interact with.
The mechanism used by the Self to convey its stand point is
automatic and on-going. You don’t need to do anything in particular to turn it
“on”. Although there are people who access audio type information, for the most
part, information is conveyed via the body as sensations not as sound or
voices.
The use of the verbs “to hear” or “to listen” is therefore
metaphoric not figurative and actually means “to notice, pay attention,
identify” which relates to sensations not voices.
Everyday life causes many distractions that prevent us from
noticing these fine sensations. Most people are so contracted most of the time,
they have a hard time noticing the difference. In these cases I recommend you
practice as described above. As you master the ability to notice these
sensations you will be able to notice more easily and more frequently.
Tuning into body sensations and using them as inner
guidelines is the true meaning of listening to our-self.
