In this life of urgency, we forget ourselves. We even lose ourselves. That’s why we need to listen to ourselves. But how? We haven’t learned to listen to ourselves, but to run around. That’s why I’m sharing 3 tips with you.

1 – Why listen to yourself?

Listening has become a vital part of our lives. All we do is chase time, rush from one emergency to the next, and we’re tired.

Worse still, when it’s time to go to sleep, we’re not at peace. For a start, we’re not satisfied with our day. In fact, with only the urgent things to do, everything piles up and we feel as if we’re doing nothing, building nothing, making no progress.

It’s a terrible feeling to be treading water.

Secondly, we’re not at peace, because what we’re doing doesn’t always make sense to us. In fact, just because we take care of emergencies doesn’t mean they’re important to us, i.e. full of meaning.

In fact, with hindsight, we can often see that what is urgent is rarely important in terms of meaning for us.

In other words, listening to ourselves becomes essential.

Because we need to feel like we’re moving forward in our lives, building things, carrying out projects that are really important to us. In fact, we thirst to learn, grow and evolve.

Because we need meaning, to go to sleep at night saying to ourselves, “I did this and it was really important to me.”

2 – What is listening to yourself?

Listening to yourself means checking in with yourself: “How do I feel? How am I feeling? What am I doing right now? What’s important to me? Where am I going? Is this right for me?”

Yes, listening to yourself is as simple as that.

In fact, it’s an appointment you make with yourself to have a conversation you might have with a very good friend of yours.

Listening to ourselves also means welcoming ourselves. It means welcoming our sorrows, but also our joys: “Are there things that weigh on me? Are there things I want to celebrate?”

Because our lives move too fast, we never take the time to look back at the things that weigh us down or those that, on the contrary, bring us joy.

And yet, it’s so good to take a step back in time. It’s the best way to propel ourselves forward, and to learn too. To learn from our sorrows and joys.

Finally, listening to yourself is a way of comforting, reassuring and motivating yourself. It’s like listening to a friend.

In fact, listening to yourself is simple. So simple.

You’ll see, over time, it will come naturally. I know all about that.

3 – How to listen

The problem is that we haven’t learned to listen to ourselves. In fact, we’ve learned instead to become machines racing against time.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

That’s our mantra.

But one day, enough is enough!

In fact, we realize that it’s high time we listened to ourselves, but how?

Well, to listen to ourselves, it’s essential to make an appointment with ourselves, in other words, to set aside time to listen to ourselves.

So, yes, we’re going to have to organize our time.

To do this, I wholeheartedly invite you to set aside 45 minutes twice a week.

Don’t jump up and down. Find solutions. (laughs)

Next, it’s essential to ritualize these 2 times. In other words, find the days and times to schedule these times. In other words, always do them at the same time.

Why is that? Because if we don’t ritualize them, we’ll always find good excuses not to give ourselves these listening times.

If you want things to change, if you really feel the need and the desire to listen to yourself, you’re going to have to change things in your daily life. Because if you don’t change anything, nothing will.

Let’s move on to ritual ideas.

4 – See a shrink, coach or trainer

I think this is the simplest ritual to set up. In the sense that it’s an appointment with someone who’s specially waiting for us, so we’re less likely to miss out on this time of listening.

What’s more, by offering us a secure listening space, the professional will help us to go deeper and really listen to ourselves.

Questions can also unblock certain issues.

5 – Taking courses

Here too, it’s a ritual that will help you to honor these 2 times all to yourself, because you’ll have an appointment. You’ll make a note of it in your diary.

Yoga, Qi Gong, meditation, whatever you like, as long as you like it.

Because listening to yourself should be something you look forward to.

6 – Go for a walk in nature to listen to yourself

I wholeheartedly invite you to start with the first two rituals and then move on to the next ones.

As a first step, I even invite you to note down this time for a walk in nature in your diary. For example: Saturday at 11 a.m.: walk in the forest.

That way, you’ll be more likely to go and, above all, you’ll be looking forward to Saturday.

During this walking time, don’t ask yourself too many questions. Just walk.

Ask yourself a little question every now and then: “How do I feel?”, “What do I remember from my week?”, “What did I particularly like?”

Take a curious look around you and inside yourself.

That’s what listening is all about.

Personally, I walk every day! And every day, I look forward to my walk, which allows me to reconnect with myself, my emotions, my needs and my desires.

7 – Write a diary

I invite you to choose two specific days and times to begin this ritual.

In this journal, write down everything that’s on your mind, everything that’s on your heart.

Again, I always start with this question: “How do I feel?”

And then I let my hand and pen do the rest.

This ritual does me so much good that this year I’ve decided to make it a daily habit. I used to write on Sunday evenings and a little whenever I felt like it.

But the benefits are so precious that I’ve decided to write every night before going to bed. It does me a lot of good.

In fact, I feel like I’m coming back to myself. I’m no longer in the doing, I’m in the being, and that changes everything.

8 – Reading to learn to listen

It may sound strange, but for me reading is one of my favorite rituals for listening to myself.

Because, when I read, there are sentences that jump out at me, at my very heart. They echo within me and help me to shed light on certain things within myself, certain reactions, emotions, certain needs too.

That’s why I invite you to try this reading ritual, 2 times a week for 45 minutes. I wholeheartedly believe that it could well change your life as it has changed mine.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover Active listening: 4 steps to making others happy
Discover How to follow your instincts: 8 tips for listening to yourself

I recommend this inspiring book:

Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life by Cleo Wade

Heart Talk by Cleo Wade is a collection of poetic wisdom that encourages readers to listen to their hearts and embark on a path of authenticity and self-discovery. Through her eloquent and thought-provoking words, Cleo Wade inspires us to connect with our inner truths, embrace challenges and cultivate a life that resonates with our deepest desires. This book is a heartfelt guide that encourages us to trust our intuition and embrace the transformative power of listening to the wisdom that resides in our hearts.

I’ve read this book three times now and love it.
Don’t let the size of the book or the number of words on each page fool you; it’s full of questions and intentions.
The last two times I’ve read it, I’ve read 2-4 pages in the morning to start the day with reflection and wonderful themes to incorporate into my day.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself