Commit to Be Fit: The power of listening

“If you are given an idea, be sure to say thank you.”

This is what my Opa would tell my dad and his siblings when they were growing up. Opa believed ideas were not random thoughts or clever inventions; he believed ideas were gifts, entrusted to you for a reason. Opa would humbly admit he wasn’t smart enough to come up with the idea himself; he simply believed they were given to us, and our responsibility was to notice them and take action.

In her book “Big Magic,” Elizabeth Gilbert describes ideas in a surprisingly similar way. She challenges the notion that ideas are something we create through effort or intelligence alone. Instead, she suggests that ideas exist outside of us, beyond us. She believes ideas have an “energetic life-form” and arrive to humans as nudges, images or quiet inner pulls that want to take shape in the world.

During our family prayer before Christmas dinner, my mom encouraged each of us to “listen closely and say ‘yes’ to the whisper we hear in our hearts.” When we talked during dinner, we realized that every person’s whisper was different. Some felt like a call to begin something new. Others felt permission to rest, slow down or reconnect.

As we enter the new year, that invitation to listen feels especially important.

New Year’s resolutions often focus on what we want to change. “Big Magic” offers a different approach. Gilbert suggests that ideas, and even callings, don’t begin with effort, but with listening. They arrive as quiet nudges, not loud commands. When we stop trying to force change and instead pay attention to what keeps returning, we may discover the direction we need is already present. After all, Rumi said “what you seek is seeking you.”

The purpose of being still isn’t only for the receiving of new ideas; it also helps us hear the whispers from our soul of what we are yearning for. When we slow down long enough to listen, we begin to notice habits: sleep we’ve been neglecting, boundaries we need to set, rhythms that no longer serve us.

Ignoring inner nudges doesn’t make them disappear. Over time, they often turn into internal tension that shows up as fatigue, anxiety, irritability or burnout. Listening, on the other hand, gives the body permission to relax and a sense of “flow” to emerge. Living in alignment can help us flourish and bring joy into our lives.

Sometimes the ideas we receive are big. Sometimes they are small. We’ve all had a person pop into our minds with the thought, “Maybe I should reach out to them.” Simply following through on these small nudges by writing a note, making a meal or checking in on someone we care about can make a big difference, and we receive joy by following through.

Gilbert writes that ideas don’t demand perfection; they ask for partnership. The whisper isn’t asking us to be brilliant. It’s asking us to be available. And, as Scripture reminds us again and again, to “be not afraid,” our goal is to begin. Don’t let the fear of perfectionism stop you.

Many of us, myself included, may feel pressure in January to set big goals. But perhaps what we really need is to be still and ask ourselves “What is asking for my attention now?”

When my mom used the word “whisper” in her prayer, almost everyone at the table could immediately name theirs. What is whispering to you? This may be your year to say yes: to listen, trust and take the next actionable step.

And now is always a good time to begin. The magic is in you.

  Buy Photo

Kylie Alger is a certified wellness coach and co-owner of the Well-Woman: Body, Mind & Spirit. Comments: kylie@thewellwoman.org.