Listening in Layers: The Art of Energetic Listening

I’m so excited to bring you into my art studio today — because this is where I see listening come alive.

Imagine it with me - being surrounded by brushes, paints, and canvases, where I just finished a new painting. It’s a landscape: a bright sky, soft mountains, a wildflower meadow.

At first glance, you see a whole picture. But when you look closer, you realize it’s made up of layers — each one adding depth, texture, and meaning.

And that’s exactly how energetic listening works.

Listening Beyond Words

When we listen, most of us start at the surface — the words. They’re clear, easy to distinguish, and we all generally agree on what they mean. That’s the “sky” layer of communication, if you will! It's the backdrop to everything else.

But just like a painting, the real magic happens when you go deeper.

The Second Layer :How They Say It

In the next layer, we listen not just to what someone says, but how they say it. The tone, the pace, the pauses, the little shifts in energy that carry more truth than the words themselves.

It’s like those wildflowers in my meadow — from far away, they look detailed and vibrant. But up close, they’re just tiny brushstrokes and specks of color. The magic isn’t in the detail; it’s in the feeling they create when you step back and take it all in.

The Deeper Layers: What’s Not Being Said

Then, there’s the layer beneath that — the subtle one you can feel more than hear. You might sense a hesitation, a posture change, or a gut feeling that colors everything else they say.

It’s that “whiff of the meadow” you can’t quite name but definitely feel. That’s where energetic listening lives — in those invisible layers where intuition and awareness meet.

Seeing the Whole Picture

And of course, there are always the big, looming shapes in the background — the things we might miss if we’re only paying attention to the loudest layer.

Energetic listening is about expanding your awareness so you can take in all the layers — the spoken, the unspoken, the felt, and the unseen.

When we listen this way — with curiosity, presence, and heart — we don’t just hear people. We see them.