Have you ever paused to notice how a certain song can elevate your mood or how the buzz of a busy street can make you tense? This is the essence of embodied listening—tuning into how we experience and interact with the sounds around us.
We can talk about embodied listening as the practice of paying attention to our body while listening and relating to sound. This means becoming mindful of how our bodies interact with the sonic environment around us, and learning which sounds our nervous system seems able to process and which not.
When I talk about sound, I’m thinking of music, people’s voices (from others and our own), nature and animal sounds, machine-like sounds, and even the sound of silence.
Most of us assume that everyone perceives the sounds around them in the same way. But this is not the case. In reality, each of us listens through unique filters, shaped by our individual experiences and perspectives. Our listening is highly personalized, with these filters influencing how we interpret and understand the world around us.
Sound is invisible, but it’s a tremendously powerful force. We are constantly surrounded by sounds, and our auditory system is active twenty-four hours a day, whether we are awake or asleep. For better or worse, sound shapes our brain and body, as well as our culture.
By being more conscious of how we respond to sound, we can learn a lot about ourselves, practice self-reflection, and develop our listening skills. At the same time, we deepen our ability to relax and unwind because when we ‘listen’ to our body, we stop resisting and drop part of the tension we typically generate when trying to push away or ignore our internal feelings and sensations.
Although this practice initially focuses on sound, it can encompass much more. Sound is just the beginning, offering a practical and accessible way to start developing embodied listening skills. Once these skills are cultivated through sound, they can be applied more broadly to help us understand the ways we respond to the various elements of our environment and social interactions.
For example, if interactions with a parent were consistently tense, one might unconsciously tense up when speaking with others who evoke similar feelings, even if the context is entirely different. But does this pattern serve us today? Of course not. There are countless situations where these automatic reactions are unnecessary and can even hinder our intentions. But it’s only by recognizing these patterns that we can begin to choose different, more appropriate responses that better reflect our current intentions and relationships.
Embodied listening is about embracing the full spectrum of our conscious and subconscious reactions to our inner and outer environments. It's a journey towards understanding that our interactions with sound are not just passive experiences but active engagements that can shape our health, happiness, and perception of the world.
In short, it's about becoming attuned to our internal reactions to anything or anyone, a process that can be both profound and enlightening.
To conclude, here’s a practical exercise to enrich your journey of embodied listening:
Start by paying attention to how you react in various situations and with different people. Notice not only how your body responds to sounds but also to interactions and environments. This could mean observing a tightening in your stomach during a stressful work meeting or a sense of warm when speaking to a friend. By tuning into these bodily responses, you become more aware of your automatic reactions.
The key is to listen actively to these signals from your body. Each observation offers a choice—to continue reacting in the usual way or to choose a different response that might serve you better. This practice empowers you to move beyond automatic reactions and cultivate a more mindful, responsive approach to life's challenges and interactions.
Download the Olo app and start practicing embodied listening today.
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