Hearing & Listening
Following on from my instagram post on ears I felt there was so much to write about our ability to hear so this blog is expanding on the instagram post, hearing problems acquired through a lifetime have a different root from those born with a hearing issue. I am focusing here on the former issues rather than the latter.
Helen Keller Said “Blindness separates people from things. Hearing separates people from people”
This is so true, hearing problems represent a withdrawal from the world of people and communication.
From a physical point of view our senses have been designed to help us survive, and so the nervous system is wired up to receive and respond to potential messages of threat with action or shutdown. Hearing becomes acute when we feel our survival is at stake, we have all watched a horror film as someone hides waiting to hear the creak of a door, or a footstep. Unfortunately many of us live in this state of alert every day, even mild anxiety can create this state of hyper vigilance. So what does this mean for our hearing?
Our ‘state’ of being will reflect our ability to hear.
Listening is the ability to fully process and digest what we hear.
So in a hyper vigilant state we are more likely to hear threats, a remark made can be heard as an attack, or potential threat. Any traumatic or emotionally charged experience we might have in our lives can potentially create an energetic wound or scar within our energy body. It might be that this hyper vigilance exists just around that particular experience and the things we associate with it. So for example; if you heard your mother crying when you were young, the emotional charge might stay with you so much that you can’t bear to hear someone crying. This effects your emotional processing of the event and thus your behaviour and words.
Our ears are directly and physically linked to our mouths via the Eustachian Tube. And both are are part of the throat chakra energy centre. Therefore our ability to express ourselves is linked to our hearing. Expressing ourselves is often linked to our ego, our desire to be important and valued. Non expression is the opposite and because we feel unworthy. Finding the balance is the key and releasing the negative emotional charge that holds us at either end of this scale is vital for healthy listening and expression.
Physical hearing issues are therefore connected with a subconscious desire to shut out the outside world. Sensitive humans and empathic souls may find words too harsh to hear and wish to shut down.
“Words cut deeper than knives. A knife can be pulled out, but words are embedded in our soul”
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Blockages dampen the messages coming in. Infections are a sign of a battle, so ear infections are often connected with anger at being told what to do, or hearing words that create a sense of fight or injustice within.
In Acupuncture ear issues are treated from the kidney meridian as the kidney is said to open into the ear. The ear and the kidney are linked, not just in shape but embryonically they are both formed from the same set of cells. Both are injured by fear.
To deeply listen is to have no fear and no desire to defend ourselves against the words that come in, because our inner knowing and self assuredness is so solid and grounded in the world we are unshakeable. We know our path because we can ‘hear’ our inner guidance. This is Kidney energy in its healthiest flow. If hearing is impaired no matter what the cause then consider the following:
What am I resistant to hearing? Resistance comes from rigidity and fixed belief systems,
Am I overwhelmed by other choices and voices? so much that I can’t hear my own inner voice and can’t make a decision - sinus and lymphatic system
Do people struggle to hear me? how worthy do you feel in your expression of yourself
What am I shutting out? are there truths, information, aggressiveness or just noise coming from others that you just don’t want to process or are unhappy with.