President-Elect Obama is currently leading his transition team through the challenges of creating a new government.   If we are to help him fulfill his promise to us, we must fulfill ours to him.  We must prepare ourselves for change… but how?

Fortunately we have just elected one of our leading teachers.  Each of us can study Obama’s unique style of consensus building and decision making through his own writing.  His books are filled with examples of the challenges he faced and his increasing ability to understand how to keep the energy of an issue moving toward resolution.

It really is as simple as he makes it look.  Obama’s secret is his point of view.  Regardless of the issue, President-Elect Obama expands his point of view to incorporate the truth of other’s points of view.  In other words, he listens.  All change begins with listening.

Listening

copyright © 2008 Time magazine (issue November 17, 2008).

Have you ever tried to lie to a child?  Children are not jaded by experience.  They look up at us with total trust in their eyes.  They expect miracles… and they command the truth from us.  They know how to listen.

For us older folks who are jaded by experience finding truth seems much more difficult than simply looking in a person’s eyes with trust.  Here’s an Energy Exercise to help you find truth within yourself.

We pick up stones because something in the stone’s color, shape or texture appeals to us.  When we place the stone in our hands we are bringing ourselves into harmony with the stone.  From that harmony, comes the gift of Silence – truth.  With any stone you pick up, you will learn another truth about yourself.

If you want to improve your listening ability the following Energy Exercises will help.

Hearing:  While walking in a natural area, listen to the sounds around you then focus on one sound only – the call of a bird, a squirrel scurrying through the leaves.  After listening to and for that sound for about 5 minutes, change to another sound.

Seeing:  When walking, stop and gaze upward, downward, right and left; then gaze straight ahead.

Smelling:  Think of a situation and remember what it smelled like.  Begin with situations that gave you pleasure – an April ride in a convertible with the top down so you smelled the lilacs, swimming at the beach.  Then think of an unpleasant situation and the smell associated with that – an argument in a restaurant.  While thinking about the situation, shift the scent of your memory to one of the pleasant scents you remembered first.  This will shift your perception of the situation.

Tasting:  Imagine a taste in your mouth until saliva forms; use smell to help!

Touching:  Again on a walk in nature, let the wind touch your skin.  Notice how it feels – cold, damp, etc.

Feeling:  When you feel fear, note the time of day and why you felt fear – 10:00 AM: fear of the meeting ahead.

Awareness:  Face the fear. 

1. Enter into the Silence and focus on one fear.  Identify its location in your body.
2. Create an energy “lock” by squeezing your forearm below your elbow while saying or thinking the following:  Thinking of a time before I first felt “this fear” (be specific).
3. Create another energy lock by squeezing your forearm above your wrist while saying or thinking the following:  Thinking of a time after I first felt “this fear” (again be specific).
4. Create flow by alternately squeezing the two forearm locks while saying or thinking the following: Thinking of the very first time I ever felt “this fear” (be specific as usual).
5. While you are squeezing the locks, again locate the focus of the fear in your body.  Then expand this feeling of fear until it releases.
6. After the release, brush down your arm several time to remove the locks.

For more Energy Exercises specific to releasing pain, gaining clarity and facing fears, click here.