Tag: conscious

Listening without evaluation

Posted on by philipdodson
Silence by Philip Dodson

A wise person said ‘the highest form of intelligence is to be able to listen without evaluation’.

We all seek to be understood and to be able to listen empathetically is a challenge.

The key to it is being able to be disconnected from our mindstreams and that requires us to be conscious and present in the moment.

When we are awake, we simply witness our thoughts and do not energise them, that means there is space to listen, without the mind wanting to reply, fix, show off that we know the right advice, tell our story, which the person we are listening to doesn’t want to hear. They want us to listen and understand them.

Listening is not a pause for us to prepare our next sentence, it is a space to hear and without judgement be fully aware of the other person’s words and to attempt to understand them.

Consciousness and vulnerability

Posted on by philipdodson

I’m a huge Brene Brown fan, I love her work on shame, vulnerability, showing up and living a wholehearted life. I have just watched her Netflix show, if you get a chance then well worth an hour and have a tissue or two at the ready, as vulnerability is tough but worth it.

I have written many blogs on the subject around bravery, vulnerability and how showing up requires them both. Vulnerability is the opposite of weakness. Watching Brene today, I realised that there is one other factor to vulnerability, it is only possible if, like everything we do, we do it when we are conscious and in this present moment. We cannot be vulnerable in the past or in the future, we have to always be it now.

Otherwise, the moment you go into the mind, the mind will sabotage and put up the vulnerability shields to protect its ego. It will do everything to stop us exposing the real us.

Our inner spiritual essence is vulnerable, loving, and full of joy, the only way to show up is to be in the moment and conscious, to be authentically us. Our light that we show to others is there because we stayed conscious and showed up, we were willing to be vulnerable.