Do you ever get that thing where you remember something you did in the past and cringe? There is a reason why this might be such a universal experience: we are wiser now than we were then.

One thing that makes us wiser (we hope!) as we get older is that we’ve had more opportunities to make mistakes. And mistakes are a powerful way to learn. One of the standout things for me is about learning to really listen.

It seems to me that often when we miss an opportunity or get things wrong, it is when we weren’t listening well enough. What kind of listening are we talking about?

The common way of listening is through the filters of what we already know, of what is already important. If we are able to listen to our experience with fresh eyes, fresh ears, open heart, we can see new possibilities and learn new things.

This is one of the big secrets of living and communicating with others.  How can we cultivate this? In connection with meditation we sometimes come across the phrase “seeing things as they really are”. It sounds wise but we are not so sure what it means. As we spend a bit of time practicing we notice this ability to experience things in a spacious, open way, beginning to unfold…