The Wisdom within Chinese Characters Series – 聽

聽 (tīng) is one of my favorite Chinese characters.

It means to listen, to hear.

In the bronze script, the character is an ideogrammic compound made up of ear 耳 and mouth 口. As it evolves, it becomes the character we see today – consisting of the original ear 耳 radical to the left and the heart 心 character in the right lower corner.

As a healthcare provider, it is not uncommon to hear patients report that they do not feel heard, whether at work, at home, or even by other providers. This leads me to continuously reflect on what it takes to make others feel fully heard and seen. And how I can cultivate an environment that allows patients to feel safe and comfortable to share whole-heartedly.

For manual therapy practitioners, “listening” takes on a different form. In craniosacral therapy and visceral manipulation, we “listen” to identify the restrictions that our bodies carry over time. We do so by placing our hands gently over the head and the body. These restrictions may be the manifestation of past trauma, surgical intervention, internal disease, or chronic physical and emotional stress. By “listening” with our hands, we discover regions that our bodies work hard to protect, and surprisingly, they are not always the symptomatic areas. To “listen” well, we train our hands to receive and not project. And we ground our minds to maintain therapeutic boundaries that allow the body to trust, unwind, release, and reorganize with minute inputs.

These treatments are often done with minimal verbal communication. Yet, the patients feel heard, sometimes more than words can describe.

This art of listening transcends modalities. The same can be done through a stethoscope in a thoughtful physical exam, through pulse taking and careful placement of acupuncture needles, through a well-crafted herbal prescription that reflects a person’s constitution, and through grounding exercises that leave agendas behind at the start of every clinical encounter.

More than anything, to “listen” with the heart takes practice.

Yet it is so rewarding.

To be heard and understood is like being permitted to be oneself again. As a practitioner, this type of therapeutic alliance energizes me. It often motivates patients to prioritize self-care, pay attention to their needs, and spend time on activities that they truly enjoy.

Whether you are a prospective patient or a fellow practitioner, I invite you to practice “listening” in what you do daily and immerse yourself in your surroundings. It may be as simple as leaving your headphones behind on a walk in the neighborhood, putting your cell phone away during dinner with family, or setting 5 minutes before and after work to clear your mind. There may be more details waiting to be picked up than you realize.

References:

聽. (2022, January 28). Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 00:11, February 8, 2022 from https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=%E8%81%BD&oldid=65536298.

About the Author: Wu-Hsun (Tom) Yang, ND, LAc