The ability to listen and the ability to really hear are two different things. One is mechanical and the other is an art form.

I have been a student of listening for over thirty years now. My journey with my mentor has been a never ending journey of awakening and discovery. Listening is the most profound master teacher that I have ever studied under.

I have had a few great master teachers in my life time! But not one with the power to carry me through  multidimensional levels of awareness in a moment by moment process. My Listening Mentor wears a coat of many colors and just when I think that I have become my own master, my mentor morphs, showing me a depth I never saw before.

The very first lesson that my master teacher shared with me is that HEAR and HEART are only one letter apart. So the first teaching I received at the feet of my master teacher was, “To really hear what is being said you must connect with heart!”

Action Step – try this over the next week:

1. Whenever you are in a listening situation during the coming week, imagine opening a channel from your heart to your head. 
2. Be aware of your heart and your hearts’ capacity to “hear” or feel what is being said.
3. Be aware of your heart as you listen and notice what if you discover. Without judgment or opinions, just listen from your heart and notice what comes up.

Let’s put that another way. We already are incredible intention generators. However, what we are manifesting maybe less than EXACTLY what we want because all of the subconscious programming that gets into the mix along with our pure intention.

It’s as we went to bake chocolate chip cookies. But when they were done they tasted like a combination of hazel butter and chocolate chips because a few hidden ingredients got into the mix. And although the result may taste good, it isn’t quite what we intended.

Our life results sometimes appear that way. Like something strange got into the mix and it turned out to be our lives.

Now here’s the good news! There are so many new clearing tools and methods available on the planet at this time. These allow us the opportunity to take responsibility for much of our own subconscious clearing and transformation. Many of these provide us with never before known avenues of self-healing.

One such avenue available over the past 25 years is something called TFT, EFT or Meridian Tapping. The original work was done by Dr. Roger Callahan. From the time of its inception, it has gone into the hands of hundreds of credible therapists who are now teaching it all over the world.

Here is a little private introduction to EFT by Dr. Tate Rolfs. Dr. Rolfs demonstrates a method of relieving stress by balancing the parasympathetic nervous system using EFT or Meridian Tapping. This is a very informal sharing but I wanted to share it with you.

I want to hear from you! Please either click on the blog title and scroll to the bottom of the page or click the word “responses” to take you to the comment area. I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

However, when I did let go of the old outlining method, I fell in love with mind mapping! It is the fastest, most powerful brainstorming tool I’ve ever used.

As a result, when I planned my first book, Learning to Learn – Maximizing Your Performance Potential, I mind mapped it. I brainstormed the entire book on a single page and I followed the map through the entire writing process.

In fact, when I thought that I’d lost the page somewhere half way through the book I freaked because I thought I lost the plot of the book. When I did find it, I made copies of it, filed the copies and finished the book.

Then, some years ago, I ran into Tony Buzan. He was the original author of mind mapping and he had developed a mind mapping program for the computer. I purchased it immediately and have been using it ever since.

Recently I upgraded to the iMindMap5 release and I love it. It is excellent for students, teachers, business people, project planners, and anyone who uses brainstorming as part of their planning process. Some of the new items included are a 3D view, presenter guides, greater ease of navigation, more templates and a lot more.

Below is a mind map that I did on Leadership for an executive team I’m coaching. The skills, skill sets and competencies I will include in the process are included on the right. The character traits necessary for success are on the left.

This is a comprehensive overview of everything I will cover in the coming months. And it gives the coachee a clear picture of where we are heading.

The map took me 15 minutes to do and the style I will present it in is 3D with various areas popping onto the computer screen as I highlight them.

Meryl was talking about her role as the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. She acknowledged the fortitude of Thatcher and all politicians for the ability to deal with the constant negativity that was thrown at them. She also said it was the hardest role she had ever played.

And…. and this was the AND I needed to hear… Meryl Streep said that she got nervous when she walked on the set for the movie.

Thank you, Meryl Streep! I’m free!! You have freed me from my Anxious Annie Critter that attacked me just days earlier. It was a major mental maelstrom and I hadn’t had one of those in years.

Then I remembered that Katherine Hepburn always got nervous before a performance. And Barbara Streisand said she went through the same thing! Knowing that I’m not alone and that it’s not just me that hit those slippery slopes, helped a lot.

But here’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say –  If I’m nervous, that’s one thing. Entertaining self-defeating thoughts is another!

So my goal for the next time I have to do filming (which is in the very near future) is that even if I get nervous…

1. Acknowledge the nervousness
2. Recognize it for what it is
3. Release all self-deprecating thoughts!
4. Take a deep breath and visualize the positive outcome I intend
5. Do whatever I need to do to have that outcome happen (which is usually to ‘over’ study)

I did everything except number 3 last time and it is that third one that sent me into a downward spiral. So I’m on my game again. I’ve learned something very powerful as I return to weeding my mental garden with more commitment to the process than ever before!

I was going into the video studio to do a series of demos for our anti bullying program, Breaking Out of the World Game. And I was in a panic. I felt like a total failure. I didn’t know my script (which I have taught in nearly 500 hundred schools).

Like the Magic Eight Ball where words keep surfacing out of the black ink, my feelings and thoughts exploded out of the dark onto my mental screen. My world spun out of control. ”Not good enough!” “I can’t do it!” “I feel lost.” ”Where do I start?”

Here I was touting mind management and I couldn’t even manage one thought. What happened!? I hit the wall and I found myself back in my own ground zero.

The only viable thought in the whole thing was really, “Where do I start?” But it took me a while to get there.

When I finally did get there, I took a proactive stance. I went back to the creativity template I had burned into my mental hard drive 30 years ago.

1. Preparation – Engage in the process. Be willing to concentrate fully on the subject. Struggle with it. Visualize it. This feeds everything into the sub-conscious mind. (In my case I had to review the material and think deeply about how to do the video without an audience.)
2. Incubation –  Let it all go. Relax. Change the subject. Play and sleep usually work for me. (In this case, I went to bed. I was going into production the next day.)
3. Breakthrough – This usually comes as an ‘AHA’ experience, like Archimedes ‘Eureka’! This breakthrough cannot be forced and arrives in its own time.

In my case, I got up on the day of the shoot and I was in ‘the zone’. I had an extremely successful day in the video studio.

But I could have done it without all of the panic and the negative self-talk. I could have had more wisdom about it and caught it by the tail before it caught me.

I was reminded of Ashley in The Operator’s Manual for Planet Earth. I had fallen asleep and lost the plot again!

I’ve recommitted to my initial goal. Staying awake on Planet Earth is a challenge, especially when the old deep habits kick in!

I’d love to hear you experiences…. I’m going to keep tracking mine and sharing the experience!