I Love You and I Am Listening
When I am unable to sleep, I typically use a guided sleep meditation to help my brain slow down and prepare for bed. One night, I continued to toss and turn determined not to meditate (stubborn). I continued to reassure myself that I would fall asleep. After a while, I gave in. The guide did all the things I was used to like breathing, tightening and relaxing my muscles which was successfully relaxing me. I could feel myself slowly falling asleep. My body got to the point where it was too heavy to do anything else but fall asleep. The guide then mentioned something that caught my ear. She encouraged the listener to repeat the saying “I love you and I am listening” until you fell asleep. I did just that and fell into a deep sleep. Normally the next morning I do not remember the meditation I did the night before but the saying “I love you and I am listening” stuck with me. For the most part, we all desire to be loved and heard by those who are in our lives. It is not as common for us to think about ourselves loving and listening to us.
There have been many areas in my life where I did not show love or listen to myself. Being a “yes” man, putting work over my physical and mental health, not speaking my truth, staying in an unhealthy relationship or job, and allowing others to tell me who I should be are a few examples. Many times, we seek others for validation or advice when it comes to certain things in our lives. The answers are normally inside of us, but we are unwilling to listen. We don’t trust, we criticize, we fear our own instincts and love which ultimately is us neglecting ourselves. This reinforces that only others can love and listen to us. Community, family, friends, and pets are important and a need, but self-love and listening to ourselves is rewarding. When we are able to say, “I love you and I am listening” and truly mean it everything else we receive from others is a bonus. Others will then be able to fully fulfill their role in our lives without the unspoken pressure/expectation of making us feel loved and heard. The ability to find our worth and purpose will come from within instead of those around us. I find this to be empowering and liberating. It is encouraging to me to know that my worth and purpose is not defined by anyone or anything. I encourage you to take a moment everyday to say to yourself “I love you and I am listening” and see what happens.
“I love you and I am listening”
“I love you and I am listening”
“I love you and I am listening”
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