This thought-for-food mindfulness snack is meant to help you expand your experiences. It’s simple really. All you have to do is listen. Closely. There will be sounds that layer on top of other sounds. Sounds from the outside in the air like birds or from your phone like talkative friends or music, sounds from your breath and your body, and sounds from things that are just beyond your hearing scope. Ever wonder what the earth sounds like if it could breathe or laugh? O what the clouds sound like as they’re becoming saturated and ready to rain? Or what heat would sound like if it had a voice as it rises off the pavement or hovers in the desert?
All you have to do in this exercise is listen to the layers. Then, when you encounter someone who’s rude or angry and you can’t really understand why they’re behaving that way, think about the sounds that you can’t hear, the rain, heat, earth’s laughter and know that you can’t understand all the layers in someone else’s psyche. Just knowing they’re there beyond your grasp may help you have more compassion. Every sound, every person is complicated.
