Video Blog Transcription

(00:00):
Welcome to the Natural Way of Being Video Blog. This video is titled “Hearing Intent.” I want to talk about listening. Now most of us would agree that it's important to listen when someone is talking to us, but I want to talk about how we listen.

To start this journey, I want to go back to how we were trained to listen. I think we were largely conditioned to listen to the words that people were using and comprehend the meaning of those words, and then derive what they're trying to say to us. So it's listening to the content of their words. And this type of listening is very useful if we're at a lecture, or we're trying to learn a skill, or we're reading a technical manual- then it's really good to focus on the meaning of the words.

But I think that this type of listening is not always as effective when we're listening to other people saying things to us- when we're listening to human beings talking to us. Because I think it kind of assumes a few things that may or may not be true.

(01:17):
It, first of all, assumes that people are being honest with us. In other words, maybe they're, consciously or unconsciously, trying to deceive us, or they're trying to manipulate us, or they have an agenda. And then if we listen to their words, we're gonna miss that.

The second thing is maybe they're trying to be honest, but they're not in touch with what they really are meaning to say- what their intent really is. So they may not be in touch with their feelings, or they may not be in touch with what they're really after or why they're saying what they're saying.

So the alternative to this is to hear intent. So when someone's talking to us, rather than just zooming in on the words and comprehending the meaning of the words, we're listening to the words, but we're also kind of allowing, I call it, allowing their energy in.

(02:21):
And we're kind of just sensing what they're saying to us. It’s more of a listening from our heart. When we listen to words and we get into the comprehension of words, we're accessing memory and it's more of an intellectual process.

It can be more useful in my opinion, to kind of tie into some of the resources that we can access when we listen from our heart. So it ties into our intuition, our instincts, our discernment, and our ability to discriminate where people are coming from. So when we listen, the first thing that's a really good idea is to let go of what we want to hear. We're hoping that she says nice things about me, but let's just listen objectively.

(03:21):
Let's let go of any preconceptions or hoping it's this because this can be a huge blind spot. If we're only hearing what we want to hear, we're going to miss their intent, and we're just going to zoom in on the parts that confirm what we want to hear.

And then the next thing I already spoke about, we’re kind of like listening from our heart. It's good to listen with our mind too, but also adding more dimensions to the listening. It's not just listening with our intellect, it's also listening with our intuition and getting a feel for what they're trying to say. So when we're allowing their energy in, and we're listening with our heart, it's like wondering, “Okay, so I wonder why this person is saying what they're saying,” And, “Who is this person?”

(04:17):
“Where are they coming from, and why are they saying this to me right now? And, “What are they really meaning to say; what are they intending to say?” And to really kind of feel your way through it. And you can ask them questions, “You mean like this?” And they're like, “No, no, no, I don't mean that.”

And sometimes different words they say will take greater emphasis. The way they said this word might mean more than what the word means. It's the inflection that they said it, with and if we're hearing listening with our heart, we notice the energetic differences. It's like he said this, and the way he said that you could tell that he really meant it when he said this.

(05:10):
And then that's a real clue as to their intent. So we're hearing their intent. We're not hearing their words; we're not listening to their words. We're hearing their intent. We're hearing what's behind their words. What are they really trying to say?

And then the really cool thing is, is we can respond to their intent, rather than responding to their words. So we can also learn more- if their words are saying one thing, but their intent is saying something totally different, we can respond to their intent and answer and address that. And we can also see if they seem to appreciate that. I mean, if they weren't being honest, they may not appreciate it, but still, it can be very effective, but that's when we kind of can call bullshit on them.

(06:12):
It's like, “I hear you saying this, but I'm wondering if you're really wanting this.” They may not like that, but you can usually tell if that's true or not. So the way you respond then, you're responding to their intent, and then you get a sense if you're on the right track or not. And then if that's not it, we can listen more.

But it's a really good reminder to not just focus on people's words, to kind of ask, “What's beyond the words? What's the meta-message that might be there? What are they really trying to say to me?” So anyway, that's my video blog for this week, I hope you have a great week, and I hope you're able to hear the intent of what people are really trying to say to you this week. I'll see you next week.