Committed Conversations

Here’s a post from my blog on this site that relates to the issue of how we tend to Listen and how the nature of our Listening can either restrict or open up opportunities for Compassion. The issue of how we listen certainly also has implications for generating deeper levels of self-awareness.

As both the parent of a 9-year old and an educator in a Graduate Psychology program, I find that not only is this sort of ‘content’ missing from our educational systems but the nature of the educational experience teaches our children to narrow their listening to a place where there is almost no space for self-inquiry, and therefore no place for true self-expression.

Link

The elimination of negative self-talk has sparked my curiosity, especially after listening to His Holiness on Saturday afternoon, where the common themes from Friday’s morning and evening sessions resonated more deeply within my heart. The tremendous boost to one’s self-image made possible through positive self-talk – at least enhancement of a person’s self-image which can be imagined and then thought of as possible; following the purposeful, deliberate, conscious shift in thought patterns to view each encounter with an attitude of ‘how can we cooperate to make this possible?’ – Could positive self-talk be to Compassion what jet fuel is to afterburners? (think Top Gun, movie with Tom Cruise and Tom Skerritt)