Listen: We’ve Failed to for Centuries

Failure is a great teacher and, if you are open to it, every mistake has a lesson to offer.

// Oprah Winfrey //

We’ve failed to listen, to hear.

Failed to see, to acknowledge.

Failed to pay attention, be aware.

To listen without judgement & to hear what we’re meant to or needing to hear is not easy. It’s easier to cover our ears, turn our heads & ignore the truth. No matter how many warning signs we have & how many red flags - we choose the path of least resistance, the path that ignores what’s blatantly obvious.

In our community, we have an uprising taking place from generations of not listening - not hearing, seeing or acknowledging what’s been right in front of us. In our country, in our world, we have defied very obvious truths of racism & of oppression for generations. In our lives & health, we have ignored obvious truths of obesity, heart disease, diabetes & other ailments that represent underlying lifestyle choices that continue to harm us.

We haven’t been listening.

The Goal: Awareness

Awareness & acknowledgement is the first step to creating change. So we must listen, we must watch, we must pay attention to what is showing up for us.

The Subject: Our Community

As a community, the need to listen is pulled to the inequalities within our system. We need to listen to the people who have been harmed. We need to hear the stories of ways we’ve been ignorant. We need to see the discrepancies in access, education & opportunity ingrained into our society. We haven’t been paying attention to the outcry of violence.

The Subject: Our Health

As a human being in health, the need to listen is pulled to our bodies, minds & hearts. We’re called to listen to physical ailments - pain, nausea, tiredness, aching. We have to see the ways in which our lives are being compromised by losing sleep, not exercising enough or constantly eating foods that degrade our health. We need to pay attention to our thoughts, beliefs, self-talk & mental management of emotions. As we become aware of what our hearts desire, we can tap more deeply into our passions - what we want in life.

The Problem: Priority

In our community, due to racism & economic disparities we have citizens scared for their lives, liberty, education, job security or worried about where the next meal is coming from. At that point, listening to our bodies isn’t necessarily an option or a priority. It’s about surviving & not thriving.

It’s critical we find a remedy to this first failure of our community in order to then heal the second aspect of listening. Although not a solution yet, read our statement on anti-racism & commitment to change here.

The Start of a Solution: Listen

Even though we have failed to listen before, we can turn these mistakes into lessons. Lessons that teach us to do better moving forward. To listen better & become aware.