Unity Wellbeing

BEYOND ACTIVE LISTENING

I cringe looking back at the times in my life I mistakenly offered unsolicited advice due to excessive empathy, loose boundaries, an unintegrated rescue savour archetype ontop of being a HD projector and neurodivergent (wired to overshare)

Something I’ve learnt with age and from offering the work I do is, often when people share their feelings it’s simply to be heard.

I don’t have to always respond and neither do you.

It’s ok to just listen.

In fact, it seems to be a lost art these days.

May I share a beautiful practice my hearts led me on these last few years?

It’s simple, like most good things in life.

It’s obvious, once one really practices it, just how healing it is, for both parties.

When someone speaks, give them all your attention and deeply listen

Move from your mind to your heart and truely hear them

Hear them with every cell of your body

Hear beyond the words they speak

Feel them

See them

Love them

Thats what they really desire

Words are just the bridge …

Sit exuding love from every pore

Wait for them to be complete in their expression

IF and only IF

Enough silence has permeated the space since words spilled from their lips

Your heart feels drawn to respond

AND

The invitation and consent is there

Speak

However, If you notice your mind jumping up and down to say something

Breathe and smile into the silence some more…

There is medicine here.

There is a deeper kind of honesty
that wants to find it’s way
into the space between us.

Its a kind of honesty
that breaks spells
and aligns life
with true love.

Its the kind of honesty
that doesn’t pretend
or perform
or shape itself to fit in.

Its the kind of honesty
that grows us into genuine adults,
ripens us into a kind of integrity
we didn’t learn from the world
we were born into...

a genuine integrity
that only lives in
this deeper form of honesty...

Its not here right now...
not just in the mainstream world,
not just in political ecosystems,
not just in greedy corporations...

its not here in our friendships,
in our families,
its not here in those communities
that call themselves conscious,
and its not embodied in those leaders
who teach from stages
or write on pages
but can’t be truly touched.

This kind of honesty
isn’t always pretty,
isn’t always fun,
doesn’t always make sense,
doesn’t always make things easy,
isn’t always flowers and rainbows
and it won’t always reinforce
our existing idea of the world
or our concept of ourselves...

Infact,
more often than not,
this kind of honesty
will ask us
to let go of the ground
that we built our lives on
over
and over
and over again...

But it’s fu***ng real...

actually, genuinely real...

and we need to remember
that it’s as important as oxygen,
as vital rain,
as essential as sunshine.

Honesty
is how consciousness
penetrates
living creation...

and it’s time we were all
penetrated to the bone
by this love
that we secretly crave;

the love of the one
who truly sees
what lives
underneath the skins
we’re yet to shed,

the love of the one
who reveals themselves
as they truly are,
not as we want them to be,

the love of WHAT IS
exactly as it is,
of what we sense
exactly as we sense it,
of what we feel
exactly as we feel it...

not dressed up,
not gentled down,
not shaped to make us
comfortable,

but honest,
direct,
revealed,
raw,

love.

✍🏻 Matthew Liam Gardner

Back to Basics!

When I grew up in the 80s, on a Sunday morning there was this rogue breaky us kids would often get called bubble and squeek, which was basically left overs cooked up with some eggs the next day!

Of course as a kid I use to winge about it, ewww I don’t want sausages, beans, mash and eggs dad, gross!! But here’s the kicker, it always taste bloody great, especially with some tomato sauce haha.

My breaky today was left over mashed potato, sweet potato & pumpkin repurposed with 1tsp coconut oil, silverbeet and two scrambled organic eggs.

That’s four veges, protein and good fats just for breakfast, more nutrients than what most kids (and adults) are consuming in a day!

Feul your body & your brain, nurture yourself & your family the old fashion way, it’s easier than you think 🍠 🥥 🥬 🥚