Unleash your power of Listening

  • This article tells how simple exercises including Bhramari, if practiced regularly, can change your listening, hearing, and health of your body in an amazingly short time.

WHY DO WE LISTEN, and HOW? FEEL THE CHANGE in you, once you go through these steps.

Human beings, as us, take listening/hearing for granted. We are careful with what we eat, drink, smell, see, but when it comes to hearing it is taken for granted, because  one can shut off the eyes, touch, mouth, nose, but the ears cannot be shut off!

Biologically speaking, listening is one of the first sensations that is formed in our body senses when we are in our mothers womb, and no other senses are developed. Gradually after birth, other sensations begin to develop slowly, mouth, eyes, touch  etc.  After these are fully developed the ear or hearing is no longer the sole guide for us, so having fulfilled its tasks,  it slowly retreads back and gets comatose. In fact hearing loss slowly starts as early as 20 or so, but  declines are faster  from 50s, and surely 60s. These can be arrested, if we do hearing/listening exercises, and keep our precious aural senses healthy.

Another interesting factor that makes us not take this important function of hearing with seriousness, is that mostly we can listen and do other tasks; working, eating, etc. So we give this powerful sense of ours a lesser importance in our lives.

Ancient wisdom shows us 4 Listening Ways, esp. the LAST ONE!

1. Listening for Fun

This is to please your self, bring enjoyment , exciting. Here it could be movies, your regular radio, television (well its less of listening more of seeing), audio books, discourses, lectures on various subjects of interest.

2. Listening for Exploration 

Here the listener is up for the grabs, he listens to radio when he is driving, he listens to music when he walks, he listens to his favourite music when he works as well.

He listens wide, exploring one after another you tube channels for example, or even flips radio stations one after another; he is like a butterfly enjoying the ride, one flower to the other, then another, then which one , this or that? Wow, its fun to keep exploring, is it not?

Thats his refuge, thats his escape from monotonous living. Often this becomes an endless addiction, where the search is more important than the find. It works as a bottomless pith in which one gets stuck and cannot get out. It feeds the nerves more , using the symptom of  anxiety/restlessnes  with more anxious excitement. If continued , it could lead to serious health issues.

3. Listening to understand

Listening with clear objectives is an established way. Whether its a program, or a lecture , or even a dance drama/theater.

How often do we re-enact a conversation that is to happen later on? Frame your questions, come up with answers what the other conversationalist may come up with. Form several scenarios of how the topic/conversation may drift. Would there be a moderator? Would there be a time frame? Even if it is just a social rendezvous, it will be useful to construct this grid. (If it‘s music, which particular music piece, why have you chosen it,  what is the objective to learn, which parts are more important, when will you listen to it, how many times you plan to listen to it,  where will you listen to it etc).

Assuredly when the actual event happens becomes extremely rewarding, your thoughts flow, you speak appropriately, you listen to other conversation threads in a totally non stressed manner. .. Try this, it will give your listening and understanding skills a great boost!

4. Listening  to your self

This is indeed such an easy path (easier said than done), the ultimate final step , yet we seldom practice this. Apart from greater listening powers, it brings peace and calmness to the body.

There are a few to do s .......before we embark upon this final path....

A maun vrat (or a silent day) in which we do not speak at all, is to be observed. In today‘s world this is indeed difficult where we are surrounded by sounds, and we need to speak/answer/react with speech!

Let us try to make it a bit more user friendly. Let us try to exercise in the following 3 ways as a compromise to this maun vrat advice first.

1. Listen and not respond with answers unless very urgent or necessary.

2. Listen and respond with body language instead of engaging speech. e.g a nod of the head, eye movements, eye brows can speak non verbally almost every answer you may have.

3. Listen (wait , ruminate, think  of the question and the answer) and only then answer, but think of the smallest way you can transmit your speech, instead of a paragraph, or few sentences. 

That WAIT will help you conserve energy. In short a great deal of energy spent on speaking, will be saved, in  your body and mind leaving it more active!

Now;

Put down your objectives, put every single small detail in it.  what are you listening to music, sound what volume will you be listening at, speaker, close the door, close the cell phone, will you be disturbed? If so take ample precautions to prepare for a wonderful listening experience, articulations, close your eyes, choose the right ambience, room, light, spot ,rug, corner, chair,  and listen with full attention, savouring each line, word, meaning.

After the listening, give a bit of silence, and slowly recap from the beginning, in your mind what you listened to as a story. Then open your eyes , you are ready for the world.

To listen to ourselves there are many ways, music, yoga, chanting, bowls, outdoor meditation, etc, However one of the best ways is  to practice this  simple effective method ...the

BHRAMARI or BEE BREATH YOGA ASANA

This is a wonderfully simple asana. It can be done anywhere, and is a wonderful relaxer, reduces tensions/anxiety; improves sinus conditions; blood pressure; migraines, and by obliterating external sounds, tunes you to the buzzing bee sound of your inner body.

Gosh the first time I experienced this I realised my body is a mini generator, with so many sounds within! It shuts you off from the wordly sounds even for a few minutes, and gives you inner refuge in your self.  It is useful to improve hearing abilities, and protects against hearing loss, and gives you complete relaxation, go on  try it!

Courtesy Sanskaryogaashram.com

Did you try it? Would be happy to know your experiences, and feedback! at email id mentioned above. 

Author is a Toronto based BANSURI musician,teacher,speaker, maker of flutes of various worlds, a published author. His writings rely on his experiences of learning music, as he continues on that beautiful never ending journey. His thoughts emanate from the discipline and study of music spans over decades. He is deeply influenced by the Indian Music Traditional guru-shishya parampara; his guruji Late Pandit Malhar Rao Kulkarni bansuri musician, Swami Parmananda of Kangra Valley Ashram where he spent learning ancient Vidhis of India, principally Chanakya Neeti. The priceless subject that strengthens thought processing abilities. A  subject forgotten as Chanakya did not write any of his teachings down as a matter of his principle. The views and ideas expressed are his own, the objective being to invoke the person to think differently, on simple issues that surround all of us in day to day life. Author site is www.mybansuri.com

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