The other day my 4-year-old stood up on a kitchen chair, pointed a finger at his Dad and said, loudly, “Hey, hey, stop talking over me. You’re talking over me.” While I originally brought it up to a friend of mine as a cute, clever story about my child, it sparked a conversation about how often we do that in our evolved culture.
Not only do we talk over small children, we oppress and repress voices in general.
In this age of technology and surveillance, where nothing is private and we have more freedom of speech than ever before, we are missing out on sharing our true voices. We are held prisoner by the constraints we put on ourselves and each other. There is a constant pressure to say the right things, as well as to silence or ignore those that say the wrong things. We are force-fed a way of being that cannot be considered genuine and those that speak their truths openly and honestly are often judged and ridiculed. The danger here is that it can lead to a “why risk it?” mentality.
If we consider the various ways others demand our silence, we may find a recipe to stop being silencers ourselves. We have to look at both sides in order for this conditioning to be brought into the light. We have to acknowledge that we cause people to shut up, and therefore, shut down. All of us have talked over other people, closing our minds and our ears to their thoughts and opinions.
We have dismissed people we don’t understand, thinking they are ridiculous, frivolous, idealistic, etc. The list could go on but the result is the same- we are stopping people from freely using their voices. How many conspiracy theorists, whistleblowers, and journalists are shunned for speaking up? How many children who believe in magic are laughed down? Our culture prefers parents, spouses, and friends to pull the members of our families and social groups back into the shadows, back into the imaginary lines we’re all supposed to stay inside of.
We are each holding a piece of the puzzle.
Looking at this in our daily lives, rather than purely through the filters of the internet and social media, we can see that while we may be putting a lot out there, we still have a long way to go before everyone freely voices their truths. The problem becomes even more apparent as we dig deeper into ourselves and begin to understand the various judgements we carry. We come to see why we don’t freely share our voices, and how we are perpetuating the cycle by repeating judgements against ourselves and in turn, inflicting judgements on others.
If every person on earth had one piece of a giant puzzle that we had to complete, no matter their age, race, gender, appearance or ability level, would we be shoving people out of the way, saying their piece isn’t worth the time or effort? Of course not. We would happily encourage everyone to contribute.
We can take the same approach to our voices. By looking at the world in a different way, we leave competitiveness and condemnation in the past. We realize that no one knows everything, most of us hardly know anything. We are, instead, all just as clueless as each other and rely on “knowledge” we learn from others and “facts” that might be better termed “the best theory that’s been accepted by the mainstream so far.” The joy is that we are clueless in different ways about different things; our human journey and shared knowledge is evolving daily as we each learn from our experiences. We all really do have a piece of the puzzle, and the puzzle we’re constructing is Life.
What makes us happy? What should we be doing with our lives? What is the right way for each of us to parent, eat, exercise, etc.? Someone else might be walking around with the words that will ignite the inner knowing we’re searching for.
Important Messages Come From Others
“Once we clearly see the process of Synchronicity, what we observe most often is that PEOPLE provide many of our Synchronistic experiences.” (Celestine Vision – The Eighth Insight)
In this case, why would we want to risk silencing or dismissing someone who could potentially give us the information we need? And on the flip side, why would we deny anyone the knowledge that we have to share? Our intuition will tell us to speak up or listen more closely; we just need to tune in and listen to our own voices. The only way we grow and change, the only way true spiritual progress is made, is through these exchanges. We can’t learn in a vacuum. We only learn through open and intuitive interactions. Shyness, fear of rejection, busyness, lack of commonality, and every other excuse become flimsy in the face of changing someone’s life, or in some cases, changing the world.
If we hold onto this perspective we can break the habit of automatically disbelieving ideas and truths that don’t instantly align with our own. We are ever evolving, ever changing beings, and while we don’t need to take on everything we hear as our own personal truth, anything is possible. Just because we may not resonate with an idea doesn’t mean it’s wrong for everyone, everywhere, all the time. Some of the beliefs we may think are crazy in one moment can become the bedrock of our lives in others.
By simply getting curious about ourselves and each other, we will look at every interaction as though it has the potential to inspire growth in our lives. By noticing when we’re triggered by what someone else is saying, instead of getting angry, we can dig into the feelings. The mystery and magic that brings on synchronicity will bloom. We can listen with our whole selves, speaking our truths with freedom and clarity. The messages we have to give and receive are unlimited and the depth of knowledge we can share and acquire becomes boundless.