As I was setting my intentions for this week and answering the questions, one of them was about what I want to receive into my life this week. The first words I wrote were: kindness. acknowledgement. community.
Then I had a moment. One of those rare moments where you can see your life from the outside and realize how amazing it is. I then wrote “I am ready to listen for the good. All this week, I will listen for the good and see what I hear.”
The thing is, I have all these in my life already. But I don’t really pay attention to them. I tend to be one of those people who’s really focused on improving. I also find the “bad stuff” easier to believe. It’s part of what I talked about last week. When you believe there’s something wrong with you, all the criticism serves to perpetuate your story so you listen to it and you hear it more clearly than anything else. And you believe it. (because you already believed it before it was even said.) This means the that the “bad” voices are much louder than the good ones.
And part of being done with that story is starting to balance out the listening. Starting to pay attention to the good. And to really hear it. Ideally, I’d say “to really believe it.” but considering I don’t even hear it, I think listening for it is already a pretty big step for me. And before I can believe it, I need to be able to hear it. To listen for it. To really see it.
So that’s my plan for this week. To really really really listen for the good. To remember it. To notice it. To look for it.
To make myself more accountable and to lock it in, I also gave the same challenge to David so we can compare notes each evening and exchange five good things we heard each day. This will mean we’re both going to have to work that much harder to listen for it, hear it, remember it and share it.
If you’d like to join us, I encourage you to spend this week listening for the good as well. Cultivate the joy. Say thank you to compliments. Believe the positive words. Be grateful. Pay attention, accept, and cherish the love, acknowledgement, kindness and community that’s already coming your way.
With a ten month who just learned how to whine, my ears have been a little overwhelmed lately! But I’ll try to listen for those sweet sounds, too; I’m always reminding myself that once she learns to talk, I’ll miss all these baby utterances.
This sounds like a great challenge. I will try it.