What is Effective Listening?

​​Day 348 of Des McCabe's Personal Development Exercises

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EFFECTIVE LISTENING

I am sometimes asked how God 
is continually working with us?
How does he communicate, help,
encourage and guide each of us?

The first point is that God is love
 and we are love,
so we are intimately connected
as one.

Once we see this,
then we can begin  to understand
 that we are in a dynamic
 and loving relationship.

Secondly, everyone else is also
made of love,
 and so, we are in this
human endeavour together.
 We are  all working for the same purpose.

God communicates directly with us
and directly through others to us.
Indeed, everything happening around us
 is a conversation from God,
a conversation of love.

Everything that happens, guides us,
more and more,
 to become total love,
for this is what we are all to become.

Very few people receive mystical visions,
so how does God communicate with us?
He speaks to us directly not through words
 but in thoughts, ideas, laughter, reflections,
wonder, success and disappointment.

He speaks directly to us through others,
through their encouragement, their help,
their guidance, their kindness and their support.
All of this is happening constantly,
within us and around us.

But effective communication
depends on two things,
listening and responding.

If we don’t ‘listen’ to what is happening today,
within us, around us, in the direction of our lives,
in our habits and in our work,
then how can we ever understand our journey?

And if we don’t respond with acknowledgement,
with gratitude, with conversation,  with
challenging ourselves,   and taking responsibility
for the love that we are,
then how will we grow?

God is speaking to you now, as always.
Love is calling you to listen, today.

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​PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE
1.  How well  are you listening to yourself? 
2. Are you giving yourself time  to grow?
3. How are others  helping you on your journey to total love? 

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