I Listen to Myself

The world we live in is made of our own thoughts and others, our own emotions and others, beliefs, concepts, and so on. Let's imagine that each of these thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are abstract forms of varying colors that exist all around us, forming a vast cloud of colors. When we choose to think, feel, or believe in something, it's as if we grab one of these forms and attach it to ourselves because we identify with it, as if it were a piece of clothing we like and choose to wear. We can all perceive, without being aware of it, all these forms around us and in others—the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and so on—of others. What happens is that we mistake them as our own because we don't understand what is ours and what is someone else's. Since we're unaware of this parallel dimension, we can't distinguish who thinks what, who feels what. These thoughts and emotions simply come to mind, and we identify them as our own.

In places where many people gather, such as cities, we feel that the environment is more charged with these forms, making everyday life more confusing, and we are more influenced by all these abstract forms, thoughts, and emotions. Only when we turn to places in nature, more deserted places do we find a greater silence, which helps us understand what is truly ours.

Another way to achieve this state of silence is through meditation. The goal of meditation is to silence the external noise, all those thoughts and emotions that come from outside, and to turn ourselves inward, to our inner self, and listen to it. To get in touch with what is truly ours.

A part of us lives focused on the outside world. It developed this way of being because it only learned to seek love and energy outside itself, in others. It has become used to fulfilling others' needs in exchange for attention and love, to the detriment of its own needs. But this makes us completely dependent on others and the little they can give us to feel good about ourselves. Others don't always have the capacity to thank us for this, to give us in return what we expect from them. Turning inward, to ourselves, to listen to our needs, is a major shift in focus in our lives. Only then can we be in touch with our emotions and feelings, in order to fulfill them, satisfy them. Until this shift in focus occurs in our lives, we live for the sake of others, forgetting ourselves, living dissatisfied. And to fill this void, we resort to all kinds of escapes, addictions, such as food, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc.

Why is it so important to listen to our

emotions and needs?

Because only then can we find emotional stability and balance, inner tranquility. Only when these needs are met can we be calm enough to know what we want from our lives and make the right choices. Until we reach this state, all our choices are based on other people's thoughts and beliefs, on other people's perspectives on life, which don't always serve us, don't always make us happy, and aren't always aligned with our own heart.

When we have eating disorders, that is, when we don't have a healthy eating, it's because we're eating to fill a void. The source of this void is a need that isn't being met, a need that we're not listening to. And so we turn to all kinds of foods to fill that void as quickly as possible. This is why eating disorders arise. The solution isn't simply dieting or re-educating our eating habits, but rather learning to listen to ourselves, to hear and pay attention to our real needs. Only then can these needs be truly met.

When we're distracted and mentally agitated, it's because we're not paying attention to our inner needs, listening to our emotions and feelings, and we look outside ourselves for something to fill the void we feel, as quickly as possible. We run away from what we feel. The greater the escape, the greater the agitation. But because we don't listen to ourselves, we're not filling this void with what truly satisfies us. We're simply ignoring these needs and not meeting them properly. And so, they remain unfulfilled, always asking for more, restless. The only way to calm them is to give them the nourishment they need. And to do that, we need to listen to them.

The very illnesses we develop are warning

signs from our body for us to pay attention,

to listen to it.

When we don't listen to it at the slightest sign, it triggers more serious illnesses to get our attention, until we make the decision to listen to it, hear its needs and fulfill them.

When we don't listen to ourselves, we don't pay attention to our needs, emotions, feelings, and we project all of this onto the world around us—which is a reflection of our inner world—and we attract people who don't listen to us, who don't give us the attention we want, or we attract situations in which we don't feel heard, and so we may even feel the need to speak louder, even to shout. Deep down, it's an instinctive reaction: "I shout to hear myself, because I'm not listening to myself enough, I'm not listening to my needs, my emotions, my feelings."

Because we were born into a society that doesn't value emotions and feelings, and that has always given greater importance to reason and logic, many of us don't know how to deal with our emotions, needs, and feelings. And so we run away from them. Because we can't control them. It's an unstable energy that we can't handle because we've grown used to measuring everything, rationalizing everything, controlling everything. And most importantly, we've learned to seek information outside of ourselves, not within. We haven't learned to listen to ourselves.

It's important to understand that if emotions, needs, and feelings exist, it's because they have their function, their purpose. Ignoring them is ignoring a part of ourselves that is so important to our happiness.

This happens because many of us, having experienced negative emotions, in which we suffered greatly, refuse to feel them. But this also prevents us from feeling joy, happiness, passion, or love. It's like locking away our ability to feel in a chest. It'd be like experiencing neither sadness nor joy. It'd be like not having a compass for our personal fulfillment. It's our emotions themselves that allow us to discover the path that makes us happy. Without them, we wouldn't reach this state of happiness and joy.

Learning to listen to ourselves, to respect our inner world, to nourish it as it needs, to listen and satisfy our needs,

paying attention to our emotions and feelings is one of the biggest changes we can make in our lives. Only then can we become silent internally and find peace and emotional stability. Only then can we listen to ourselves and perceive the direction in life our hearts want us to follow. Only then can we open our hearts to feeling love.