Listening may be one of the most important activities we can choose to participate in in our entire lives. Listening-really good listening-involves a great deal more than our ears. To listen, we need to empty ourselves for a while. We need to adjourn the committee in our heads and invite its members to take an extended vacation. In order to listen fully, we have to be able to dismiss idle head chatter, criticism and judgmental attitudes. Otherwise, our heads are far to crowded to have room for anything new! To live a more balanced life, we have to open our hearts as well. The absolute very best listening is done with our hearts, not our heads. We have to be willing to let the words enter our ‘beings’, where they can be tenderly sifted and sorted so that we are available to know the various levels of their true meaning. Then, we have to practice opening our hearts, minds and being. Listening is a highly complex and intimate process – When you do it with kindness and compassion, you’ll hear more than you’ve imagined possible.