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When you open your mouth and utter words meant for another to hear and respond to, what are you REALLY doing?

Why are you REALLY speaking?

What do you expect from that other person?

For when people talk, they may exchange words, but they are not always communicating.

And that's OK.

Maybe they don't want to communicate at this time.

But living consciously means being aware of the underlying threads of energy connecting your words, and feeling what is TRULY taking place.

Is is a conversation?

Or is it communication?

A conversation at it's shallowest and politest end is small talk.

"How are you?"

"I am fine."

"Nice weather isn't it?"

The words carry no energy, no weight and no meaning.

Then there are the conversations we have with people we know.

We talk about what we like and don't like.

"Oh I hate that band, they're awful."

We talk about what is better than what.

"The All Blacks are so much better than the Wallabies."

We talk about who's doing what.

"Can you believe Paris has to go to jail?"

And we talk about what should or should not be happening.

"Parents shouldn't smack their kids, ever!"

This is conversation, and the underlying energetic threads are those of the ego.

Conversation seeks to establish who or what we identify with, what we believe in and how we think things 'should' be.

At this level, we act in a subtle way to draw power and make our egos bigger by establishing what WE like, what WE think should be, and what WE think is better... all so that we can feel better about ourselves.

So that we can be RIGHT.

This type of conversation can shift between light, gossiping, banter, to cruel manipulative game playing to one-up-manship to argument.

It's all the domain of the ego.

It's when we're just waiting to get our piece in.

Waiting to react.

Waiting to assert our beliefs and our ideas.

And then there is communication.

Ah... communication. Like a soft breeze on a balmy summer's afternoon, communication is the gentle flow of energy from one heart to another.

Communication is when we talk about how we truly feel.

Communication is when we listen to what the other person really is saying.

Communication is when we respond with our hearts.

Communication is when we are aware of the gifts of understanding every person we interact with has to give us.

Communication is why we blog, why we email, why we text and why we talk.

But when we communicate, we must be open - both to giving, and to receiving.

We seek not to establish our ego identity through attaching to likes & dislikes, shoulds & shouldn'ts, goods & bads.

Instead we feel free to express who WE truly are, on a soul level.

We're not afraid to show emotion.

We're not afraid to use strong words.

We're not afraid to tell of that which affects us.

When we communicate we laugh together, cry together, giggle together and rage together.

And then we let it all go and just be together.

Sometimes it is the place for small talk. Sometimes it is the place for conversation. But always there is a place for communication.

As you become conscious throughout your day of the underlying threads of energy tugging at your words...

Ask yourself,

Why am I saying this?

What purpose do these words serve?

Am I communicating?

And if you're not... if it is just the voice of the ego demanding to be heard.

Then take a breath, pull yourself down into your heart and gently open up to hear what is being said to you.

From that heart-centred place of stillness,

Respond with awareness,

Trusting that whatever you say from that place of being

Will always be exactly what needs to be said in that moment.

Never be afraid

to

communicate

with

Your heart.

It's all we are waiting for.

Learn more about this author, Kara-Leah Grant.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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