It is the body that signals the difference between empty words and ones infused with meaning.
– Joy Reichart, Integral Coach

Communication permeates our days. As many in our field head into a new school year, there are opportunities for speaking and listening with new people, in new ways. Whether it’s with colleagues, families, staff or our own friends and family members, speaking and listening can be challenging, and it can be rich and fertile terrain. We offer these simple self-observation tools to support your listening and speaking.

• Notice your breath and your physical presence to the conversation.
• Who is it harder or easier for you to listen to?
• When do you open up? When do you close down?
• What is your emotional tone, as you listen to this person in this moment?
• How can you support yourself to be present so you can speak and listen as fully as possible?
• When you reflect on a conversation or meeting, what can you take from it and what would you like to do differently, next time?

Being aware of the mental, emotional and physical aspects that arise during speaking and listening can provide useful information about how we will choose to engage with the moment; where we are coming from, and where we hope to go.

In her article “Body-Centered Speaking and Listening” Joy Reichart reflects on how Head, Heart and Body influence and impact our messages.

“Often when we’re speaking from our head, or rational mind, we’ve put some thought into what we’re going to say. Obviously this isn’t a bad thing—there are plenty of instances when that is very appropriate and necessary. However, in a conversation that is intended to be reflective or supportive, what is arising freshly in the moment is often more helpful—and that comes from some place other than the head.

“Anchored in our physicality, we can be more fully impacted by something another says, which may in turn shape what we say—something, perhaps, that is truer to the moment. It allows us to be attuned to the mood and energy of a group, so that what we speak into the space has relevance and impact. It is the place of our own grounding and solidity, through which we can source the capacity to hold another’s big emotions. And lots more.”