Ep 1: How to listen IN to our own body’s wisdom
Episode Summary:
Welcome to our very first episode of the Sacred Listening podcast! In today's episode, I am laying out the meaning behind Sacred Listening, and how I aim to guide you to "listen IN" to your body with this podcast. Chances are, if you've been living an over-scheduled, over-busy life, you haven't listened to what your body's needs are lately. Tune in to learn more about how to return to your body's wisdom to nurture, rather than neglect, your own self.
Topics discussed in this episode:
2:00 - What is the meaning behind “Sacred Listening? and what does it mean to truly listen?
3:30 - What keeps us from listening to our own intuition?
4:42 - External vs internal listening
6:24 - Suggestions to start practicing internal listening to our own wisdom
13:38 - What to expect in the future episodes
14:30 - Take home message
What does it mean to truly listen?
I figured that, before we jump right into other topics I have planned, that I would share a bit about the purpose behind Sacred Listening.
So what do I mean by sacred listening? For me, to truly listen — whether to someone else or to yourself — is a sacred practice. In fact, the Chinese character for the word listen, “ting,” includes the characters for “ears,” “eyes,” and “heart” to make up the character for “listen.” Indeed, when we truly listen, we embody the wisdom of what is being conveyed.
We often hear things, but how often are we truly listening? How often do we listen IN? Especially nowadays in the days of information. We take in so much each day — overly stimulated by information from external sources, and forgetting the wisdom from our own internal sources.
External vs internal listening
And why do we do this? It’s most likely because it is MUCH easier to listen to someone else give us advice and/or tell us what to do, so that we don’t have to bear the responsibility of our actions. External listening is much louder, much more stimulating, much more exciting — all of which our minds enjoy.
Internal listening is quieter, subtler, and much fewer in words. It happens in spaces and silence — both of which are VERY rare in the modern days. We don’t allow ourselves to be bored anymore…we don’t allow our kids to be bored anymore. There constantly is somebody else entertaining us or telling us what to do (yes especially those TikTok trends!).
Though you will be listening to the podcast for stories, expert interviews, and discussions on all things self-nurture, ultimately, this podcast is to help you “listen IN.”
Suggestions to starting listening IN
How do we start, you ask?
Here are some ways you can start to listen IN to your sacred self:
Spend 3 minutes to simply listen to your breathing. Breath is a way to connect to your body, to bring your mind back to what is present, and reign in the busyness of your mind. Through listening to your breath, it brings about a hush over your thoughts that are covering up your inner voice and wisdom. You can do this with eyes closed, or if you’re uncomfortable with that, with slightly lowered eyelids so that your eyes are still open but you are quite looking outwards either.
Pick up on your primal bodily instincts and drives. Oftentimes, due to busy schedules, we ignore our bodily urges such as needing to go to the bathroom, hunger, tiredness, and more. The first step in reclaiming your sense of self is to listen to these more primarl and obvious cues your body gives you. As you become more in tune with these signals, you will slowly be able to listen in to the more subtle cues.
Doing gentle movements or stretches, but go at it VERY slowly and even pausing during the movements to explore the sensations. Oftentimes we go through movements way too fast, or we move without really paying attention to what we’re doing. Even in yoga classes, myself included, we might just simply be following the teacher and doing movements without really tuning in to what the effects are in our bodies. So you can pick one simple movement, any movement — such as very slowly lifting one arm overhead, noticing sensations as you lift your arm, pausing the movement with your arm overhead and notice any sensations there (pain/tightness/comfort/ease/etc), then once you feel the exploration is complete, lower your arm slowly down while also observing sensations of the movement. Repeat a few times this side, then do the other side. My favorite is simply lying down on my back and VERY slowly rolling my head to one side, noticing any tension/twitches/sensations in my neck or elsewhere in the body, then doing the same while rolling to the other side. I have a separate episode with a guided audio practice for you to do this.
Take away message
So with that concludes our short and sweet episode today. I want to keep these episodes on the shorter side so that you can get your inspiration here and leave space to listen IN. With each episode of “information,” I will also release an episode for an opportunity to listen IN through breathing practices, meditation, relaxation techniques, and more. After all, information is only information unless we act on them.
My hope is that through this podcast, I can offer you some insights that feel sacred and embodied to you. More importantly, my hope is that you learn how to start listen IN to your own body, your own wisdom.
Until next time, I hope you listen IN.
About Elaine
Elaine Oyang is an IAYT-certified yoga therapist and a self-nurture advocate. Throughout her 12+ year of teaching yoga in studios and private practice, she works to help others restore balance in their bodies from their over-busy lives. She's worked many years in private practice to help clients through their journeys of chronic pain, chronic illness, anxiety, insomnia, and loss of sense of self. With her podcast, Sacred Listening, Elaine shares with a wider audience on her personal experience, and that of her clients', on how to reclaim self-care and self-love.
This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.