Ahmedabad Airport on August 1st, 2011, a spicy breeze hit my nostrils as I stepped into the Indian soil. Almost simultaneously, my hair started to furiously expand in all directions due to the high humidity but so did my excitement. I was the happiest human being on the planet. The thing is that I’ve always dreamed of visiting the country and my dream was finally turning into reality. For the next 2 months of my stay, I got to know that India was everything I had imagined and much more. You will soon discover why...
August 29th, 2011 at 5am, my train was going through the last stretch of a 32 hours journey from the state of Kerala back to Gujarat. I had a strict "unplug" policy which included not carrying a watch at any time during my stay in India. However, I was pretty sure that I will have to take off in the next station.The problem is that “pretty sure” was not good enough estimation in my case since making a mistake would mean that I would find myself in the middle of nowhere about 3 hours away before or after my station. Since I also didn’t have a phone, that was not an option. So, I turned towards the man sitting next to me and timidly asked him with my broken English: “Station Gujarat next?” He proceeded to explain what seemed like crucial information. I am sure it was very helpful...if only I could understand the language! At the moment, I blamed myself for only speaking 4 languages and his wasn’t one of them. In a desperate effort to fight my fate, I repeated the word “English” many times but still nothing. The station was approaching rapidly. I needed to knoooow. Suddenly, I locked eyes with him and tried to connect beyond words. I decided to trust my gut and take off right then and I was right to do so. I was. Now, Why am I telling you this story? Who cares if I almost got lost in the middle of nowhere in India?
India has more than 1.38 Billion souls! 22 languages are spoken. Six religions are practiced with Hinduism being the most followed and counting 33 Million gods! How about that for diversity?
Despite this immense variety, I noticed that this country lived in relative harmony. How could they reach a balance with such disparity in key areas such as faith and language? Part of the answer resided in realizing that I was, myself, communicating with locals for 2 months while we didn’t speak each other languages! It was pretty surprising as I was involved in leading HIV awareness campaigns in remote areas so communicating with everyone to spread the message was kind of the main point! Then, it dawned on me that I was indeed connecting with people, just not with words. In fact, I was fluent in the most universal language that is the “language of energy”
Before you grab your megaphone and shout “Pop-spirituality crap boooo”, let me explain.....
If you don’t speak the language of any given country, your energy and intuition get activated and bit by bit, you become better at feeling and BEING vs. thinking and talking. You move from the superficial layers of human connections towards a much deeper level that is shared among all of us in this planet. Ladies and gentlemen introducing: The energy field! The awesome perks of this language is that it is tuition-free, location independent and open for immediate activation. How awesome is that? Why don’t we all use it then?
Nowadays, verbal language became often a hinder rather than a facilitator of genuine communication. Fake news is just one of a million everyday example of verbal manipulation. We focus a lot on the words while the truth often resides in the unspoken. In contrast, when you “sense” people, you connect to their energy level, which is part of the larger energy field that connects all of us. Thus, you open a back door to their soul. Now, If you don’t believe in energy then you are probably convinced that I am crazy by now so please feel free to stop reading and trade this post for a cat video worth your time. But, If you do believe in it then carry on.
As a polyglot and a language teacher, I can tell you that connecting at an energy level is the purest clearest form of languages because you can’t simply hide your own energy and intentions. When one become fluent in “energy speaking” they can read others like an open book. Ok, how do we become fluent at this awesome stuff?
1. STAY SOMEWHERE YOU DON'T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE
Book yourself a long stay somewhere where you don’t speak the local language. In the absence of verbal words, you will be pushed to "feel" people. You will have to listen to your gut also known as that little voice in your head (the good one)
2. WEAR YOUR BEST SMILE
I am talking genuine giant smile not the creepy type. Tested and proved by yours sincerely in 10+ countries where I didn’t speak the local language and English wasn’t understood. It worked every time. It just signals that you are coming in “peace”. You will quickly notice that people can’t hold but to flash you back with their best grin. The reason is that humans have the tendency to mirror each other. Yep as simple as that.
3. TRUST THE PROCESS
This is a big one. Remember, People will mirror whatever you give them so make sure to trust that people want you good in most cases. This sense of serenity will often be met with openness from others. On the other hand, if you are on the skeptical side, they will mirror that too. People will feel something is sketchy with you and since you don’t dissipate their worries with your words, it might get worst. This reaction is expected because it is built on an ancestral mechanism meant to protect us. Again, they mirror whatever energy you give them so make sure to spread the good vibes!
What did I discover applying these methods?
The majority of people have your best interest at heart-really. They often want to help you and project the best image of their country. For the ones who are not, they are just apprehensive of strangers at first but they will not resist a big smile for so long. Ready to test your energy skills? :)
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