3.5 Questions for Reflection and Practices to Consider for Listening to Self

When considering the story of the Buddha and his answer to the question, “Who are you?” with the reply “I am awake!”, what does it mean for you to be awake…to be conscious…to be enlightened? How does the process of awakening to awareness relate to listening to the SONG of life? I do not view enlightenment, or becoming awakened, as a terminal state but as a continual process of becoming. Rick Archer’s website, Buddha at the Gas Pump (batgap.com), has a tagline that captures this processual idea of awakening, “Conversations [over 700 interviews as of July 2024] with ‘Orindary’ Spiritually Awakening People” (emphasis author).

Which of the listening to self activities attracted you the most? Consider taking a trip around the rim of the Wheel of Awareness, practicing an Open Focus approach to your experience for five minutes, taking stock of the current state of your Energy House, locating yourself on the Ego to Kosmo centric levels, developing a personal integral Psychograph, and/or exploring the expansion and contraction of self in the Youiverse Explorer.

Three types of journaling were described as methods of listening to the self. Which method—daily nerocycling to integrate thoughts and feelings, short-term journaling to heal a stressful event, or the comprehensive Progoff approach to journaling—most appeals to you? Take fifteen minutes to explore one of these methods on the internet, and if you feel inclined, test out one this week to cultivate listening to yourself.

Having read the extended autoethnography on meditation in the classroom as a way of listening to the self, how can you adapt this method of meditation to your everyday life? Another possibility for meditation is to take a five-minute meditation break to relax from the day’s stressors, listen to yourself, and see what insights emerge.