Path no.
3
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Mindful listening
When you learn to listen everything is your teacher
Key insights
Key insight
Mindful listening is an embodied practice you can acquire and cultivate. Listening well is a wonderful way to show up for someone. It’s an act of love and inspires trust.
Key insight
Key insight
You can foster 3 different levels of mindful listening:
1. Listening for yourself (i.e. when you’re learning mode).
2. Listening to others and the world around you—feeling empathy for others and listening with no agenda.
3. The most advanced level is intuitive listening, which involves also listening to what *isn’t* being said, as well as listening with love, less judgment, and an open heart.
Practice
Mindful listening
Now it’s time to try the mindful listening techniques David described.
After putting away objects that may distract you (like your cell phone or laptop), set your intention to listen mindfully to someone you will interact with today.
Show up for them by staying curious, listening without judgment, and feeling empathy about their perspective.
Before responding, remember you can always take a breath and a mindful pause.
Reflections
How often do you feel you really listen deeply to others?
What’s the quality of your listening overall—shallow, deep, restless?
How would it change your relationships if you made mindful listening a regular practice?
Reminder
“Deep listening is a great gift to offer to the world.”
Deep listening inspires trust. But to listen mindfully means letting go of a fundemental self-centeredness. We have to be willing to put down our own thoughts, views, and feelings to truly listen. Listening is a heartfelt practice that can provide support and comfort for someone else. Everybody loves to be listened to, it's universal.
Community
Come practice with us
Monthly mindfulness workshops
Every month, David hosts a mindfulness meditation workshop on Nectara. Join the next one and come deepen your mindfulness practice.
Book a session with David
Get direct support from David—a mindfulness teacher with 20+ years of experience—and gain additional support and clarity about what truly matters to you. Book a complimentary call with him on Nectara.
Walk your journey with us
Are you looking for a safe and intimate community space to share your healing story, deepen your practice, and connect with others? Join Nectara’s Circle, our psychedelic wellness support community.
Mindful extras
For a deeper dive
If you’re wanting to take a deeper dive with David about mindfulness, check out these curated resources he’s created or selected for you:
“Listening” by Jean Valentine:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/75642/listening
In comparison to mindful listening, here’s a comedic example, “Arthur 2 Sheds Jackson,” of bad listening by the British sketch comedy troupe, Monty Python:
Join us tomorrow for a micro lesson in mantras and how to create a powerful one for yourself.
Support our work
Thank you
We are making this resource accessible to more folks with a pay what you can model. Did you find this part of the journey useful to you? Consider donating to David and Nectara for our time and energy so that we can create more resources for the psychedelic community.
Part of the proceeds will go to a lineage and organization David has learned and practiced meditation with for 20 years:
Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship