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by Marilyn Shannon & Deborah Isenhour
What will it take to transform our inner struggles and tumultuous encounters into healing relationships? We all know that listening is vital for resolving conflicts so what more can be said beyond the existing skills of active listening, reflecting, and summarizing? Can there possibly be new ways to listen that haven’t already been tried? Yes! We believe that listening to our human energy holds the key to transcending conflict in a way that actually can transform relationships.
At Source Education, we have collaborated on a new model, Source MediationTM that compels us to consider realities that challenge current thinking. We believe that our human energy can be harnessed and used as a resource to aid us in resolving conflict and show us a whole new way of living and relating to each other, whether the interaction is filled with conflict or love. Our cells and organs all contain electrical impulses that emit electromagnetic fields of energy not unlike radio signals. So we are all constantly sending out energy that affects not only ourselves but also those around us. We just haven’t been consciously listening to it before. Humans have invented numerous devices to detect and use other forms of energy such as the x-ray machine and the radio. But what about our own energy?
The medical profession is beginning to listen to the evidence showing up all over the world that indicates people are being healed in ways, locally and non-locally, that medical science cannot explain. Have you ever read or heard about accounts of someone recovering from a disease that had been labeled as fatal? We believe that there are people who are listening to and directing their human energy in powerful ways. Actually, we believe that everyone was born with the ability to do just that. With new insights, we can actually tune into our senses, which are of course energy, and listen in ways we have overlooked and forgotten.
The Source MediationTM model explains that we all manifest our energy in three major areas: 1) our emotions, 2) our actions, and 3) our creativity. For most people, our energy gravitates more to one of these areas than the others but all three of these components are always present and available. At Source Education, we teach ways to listen so that we can recognize where the energy is focused and with what intensity. Using a tool we developed called “The Energy Audit”, we can quickly assess how we are responding to any situation as we gain understanding and knowledge about helpful strategies. Through “The Energy Audit” we acquire ways to “move” the energy for a desired outcome. In the case of conflict, we learn that balance occurs by moving the energy and when our energy is balanced, we can relate from our “source” or higher-self. It is from this place that resolutions and understandings occur. Once integrated, the same techniques used for ourselves can be used to gain insight into the energy and behaviors of others. Together, this information sets the stage for powerful relationships. As we stated earlier, we manifest our human energy in three areas. The energy associated with actions or “doing energy” is where most of us operate in the world today. And, in fact, we couldn’t get out of bed in the morning if we didn’t manifest our energy in actions to some degree. So this energy is vital to our life. Sometimes, however, we get so focused on doing, that our energy gets drained from other areas. Through listening we can identify our energy leaks, balance that energy, and return to our “source”.
Another area of human energy is our “creative energy”. Everyone has the capability to access this energy though many people may deny this innate ability. Opening up to creative energy is different for everyone. By listening to our creative energy, we can explore creative blocks and openings so that this energy can be accessed.
The third area of human energy is our emotions. We all know the difficult path of learning to manage emotions. We are all at different points along that continuum from uncontrolled outbursts to the mode of being in total control. The emotions dealing with conflict such as anger, resentment and revenge will cause and maintain high levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, actually impairing a person’s ability to listen, think and respond creatively. By moving to our heart, channels of listening and possibilities open up.
The heart is the focal point for managing emotions. Physiologically, the heart creates the largest electrical field, and therefore the largest electromagnetic field of energy, of any other organ in the body, including the brain. Being able to harness that energy and use it as a resource to manage our emotions is the focus of much research. It has been shown that not only does the heart have a significant impact on our own thoughts and behavior but the energy from the heart can impact others directly and indirectly. Research has been done to detect the impact of one person’s heart energy on another person’s energy up to eight feet away. The heart has actually been shown to contain a neural system with intelligence that exerts more control over the brain and our physiology than previously known. Similar to our fight-or- flight response to danger, it’s the lower or limbic portion of our brain that is controlling our negative emotional responses in conflict. It is in the frontal lobes (higher brain) that the higher qualities and aspects of human intelligence and emotions are activated.
Through the intelligence and the power of our heart energy the shift from our lower brain to our higher brain responses is activated. When we are able to listen to and respond from our heart energy, we can begin to communicate in ways necessary for the transformation of relationships. Igniting the heart energy allows new understanding to become available. Opening up to our heart energy helps to soften and balance our emotional states bringing clarity and releasing discord. There must be a partnership between the heart and the head for harmony to exist. The energy that was being used to hold onto a conflict is now free to fuel healing.
So, we believe, that the essence of communication is listening (to our human energy and to others) and that the essence of listening is understanding. Understanding, then, becomes the bridge to forgiveness and reconciliation. Of course, through listening we become aware of our own culture, beliefs, assumptions, perceptions, expectations, and judgments. We must heighten our self-awareness to be able to recognize our “same-nesses” and respectfully acknowledge our differences. The Source MediationTM model transcends all these filters to create unity and togetherness rather than the separateness we feel in conflict. Listening to our energy needs no interpreter. It is a universal language and is by its very essence, non-judgmental and unifying. Therefore, listening must be done from a whole body to a whole body with an open heart and an open mind.
Marilyn Shannon
Deborah Isenhour
marilyn@powerofdialogue.com
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