Deep Listening
An invitation to slow down and reconnect—with yourself, your loved ones, the land, and your culture. Rooted in Indigenous values, this journey celebrates the wisdom of our ancestors and the transformative power of deep listening.
🌲 Why Deep Listening?
Deep listening is an act of stillness and presence. By listening deeply—to ourselves, the land, and one another—we honour the teachings of our ancestors and create space for healing, growth, and cultural revitalization.
🌟 How It Works
Each month features prompts and practices to help you:
- Pause and embrace stillness
- Deepen your connection to yourself, your community, and the land.
- Find wisdom in reflection and growth.
✨ Ways to Participate
- Explore your reflections through journaling, art, storytelling, or meditation.
- Connect with our monthly themes and activities in a way that feels meaningful to you.
- Join our Facebook Group to share your journey and insights!
This journey is yours to shape. Whether you join every month or just a few times a year, let it guide you toward meaningful connection and reflection.
- Start the new year with clarity and purpose! Let’s honour the wisdom of 2024 while planting seeds of intention for 2025.
- ❤️ What intentions will guide you this year as you listen to yourself, the land, and your community?
- Choose one powerful intention for each month that uplifts and energizes you.
- This isn’t about rigid resolutions—it’s about cultivating practices that give you life, connection, and meaning.
- What wisdom from 2024 has shaped your understanding of yourself, your relationships, and your connection to the land? How can this guide your intentions for 2025?
- When you take a moment to truly listen—whether to yourself, the natural world, or your community—what do you hear calling for your attention or care this year?
- What role does your connection to your culture and ancestry play in shaping your intentions for 2025? How does this connection inspire and guide you?
Pause & Feel
Close your eyes and connect with winter—feel the wind on your skin, the vibrations beneath you, and the distant sounds around you. Let this moment of stillness ground you in the season.
Listen to Sounds of Winter
Click the link to hear a short audio clip and immerse yourself in the serene rhythms of winter—let the sounds transport you to the heart of the season.
🎧 Listen Now
Letter to You
Write a letter to yourself, dated for this day in 2026. Reflect on what the past year has taught you and the intentions you hope to carry forward into 2025. Include words of encouragement, hope, and self-compassion. Seal the letter, place it somewhere safe to revisit next year and set a reminder for yourself (on your calendar) to return to it. By writing a letter to yourself, you are creating a personal tradition of reflection and growth.
Create
Create something inspired by your culture—art, a craft, or a recipe—and reflect on its connection to your roots. Draw inspiration from winter’s stillness and your cultural teachings. Paint a snowy scene, craft with winter-inspired colours, or prepare a traditional winter recipe to honour the season. Reflect on how your creation connects you to the lessons of resilience and renewal.
Gratitude Jar
Decorate a jar to use throughout the year. Begin by writing down things you’re grateful for from 2024 and intentions for the new year on slips of paper. Add to the jar regularly, creating a collection of positive reflections to revisit when you need inspiration.
Together, we’ll explore, reflect, and connect with intention.
- This month, we focus on Gratitude for the Land, Loved Ones, and Ancestors—honouring the important relationships that ground us.
- ❤️ Who or what are you grateful for today? How does gratitude deepen your connections?
- 🌿 Take time to reflect on a meaningful relationship—whether with the land, family, or community.
- 💙 Share a story or practice of gratitude that’s close to your heart. Let’s celebrate the connections that nourish us.
- What moments of connection—whether with loved ones, the land, or ancestors—are you most grateful for lately? How have they shaped or strengthened you?
- When you take time to quietly observe the world around you, what do you notice about your relationship with the land and its rhythms? How does this observation inspire gratitude?
- What story or teaching shared by a loved one or Elder has stayed with you? How does it influence your understanding of gratitude and connection?
Listen to Elder’s Stories (9mins)
Elder Marjorie Muise, a Mi’kmaw Elder from Bay St. George, warmly reflects on her childhood winters surrounded by family and the traditions that sustained them. Her story weaves together memories of community, resilience, and the magic of the winter solstice—from harvesting firewood by horse and sled, to the simple joys of storytelling, ice fishing, and the moonlit beauty of freshly fallen snow. As you listen, reflect on the wisdom passed down through generations and the enduring lessons of endurance, connection, and the quiet magic of winter. Let her words inspire your own reflections on how winter shapes your traditions and sense of self.
📑 Text Version
Story Journaling
After listening to a loved one or an Elder’s story, write down the parts that resonated with you the most. Reflect on why these moments stood out and what lessons they hold for you.
I can smell the snow
Elder Marjorie Muise, a Mi’kmaw Elder from Bay St. George, invites you to immerse yourself in the imagery and emotions of her poem, ‘I Can Smell the Snow’. Through her words, she captures the essence of the winter solstice—its shorter days, longer nights, and the renewal found in the season’s first snowfall. Her poem reflects on traditions passed down through generations, the warmth of connection, and the quiet magic of renewal under a blanket of snow. As you listen, let her poetic voice inspire you to reflect on the stories, memories, and feelings the winter season evokes in your own life.
📑 Text Version
Silent Observation
Choose a window to look out of or a calm space to sit. Observe what’s happening around you without speaking or reacting—just quietly notice the world. Reflect on what you noticed in the stillness that you might usually overlook.
Silence
A poem by one of our community members. This poem invites you to explore the transformative power of stillness and silence. Through vivid imagery, it reframes quiet moments as spaces for creation, healing, and resilience. As you read, reflect on how pauses in your own life—those spaces between words, actions, and seasons—offer opportunities for renewal and strength. Let this poem guide you in finding intention and courage in moments of stillness.
📑 Text Version
Connection Offering
Make or gather something meaningful—a handmade craft, a bundle of cedar or sage, or a baked treat—and offer it to someone who has impacted your life. Reflect on the act of giving as a way to honour and strengthen your connection.
- March is all about celebrating the incredible resilience within you and the land. Like nature’s ability to thrive through storms, our inner strength carries us through life’s challenges.
- ❤️ What is a moment of resilience you have experienced, and how did it shape you?
- 🌿 Embrace acts of resilience by reconnecting with cultural teachings, finding strength in nature, or reflecting on moments that have defined your growth. Together, we honour the resilience that helps us thrive.
- What challenges have you faced that revealed your inner strength? How did these moments shape your perspective on resilience and personal growth?
- How do the cycles of nature—like the changing seasons or the growth of a plant—reflect your own life’s transitions? What lessons of resilience can you draw from these parallels?
- What qualities, values, or strengths do you contribute to your community? How can these gifts inspire or support others during times of challenge?
Visualization
Sit quietly and visualize a cycle that resonates with you, such as the moon phases, a plant’s growth, or the flow of seasons. Imagine yourself moving through each phase. How do you feel in each stage? What thoughts come to your mind? Reflect on how this cycle parallels transitions in your life.
Gathering your Gifts
Collect items that symbolize the unique qualities, values, or strengths you bring to your community. These could be tangible objects like a small stone, a meaningful photo, or something you create, or symbolic representations like a drawing or a word written on paper. Reflect on how each item represents the ways you contribute to others—through kindness, creativity, or wisdom. Keep this collection as a reminder of your role in building and supporting community, even from afar.
Skill Building
Choose one skill or hobby that you believe could benefit your community in the future—like cooking, storytelling, sewing, or even learning a traditional craft. Spend time today practicing or exploring this skill. Reflect on how building your abilities now can become a gift you share with others later.
Stretching (15mins)
Take a few moments to reconnect with your body through gentle movements that promote grounding and relaxation. These stretches are perfect for easing tension, improving circulation, and finding a sense of calm, whether you’re at home, at work, or anywhere in between. Let this practice remind you of the importance of pausing, breathing, and caring for your physical well-being.
📽️ Watch Here
Light a Candle
Welcome the spring equinox by lighting a candle as a symbol of balance and renewal, honouring the equal hours of light and darkness that mark this turning point. Take a moment to reflect on the growth you see in the natural world—buds on trees, longer days, and the return of warmth—and consider the growth you wish to nurture within yourself. Offer gratitude for the opportunities this season brings, whether through quiet reflection, a prayer, or a small offering to the land, and set intentions for the new beginnings and possibilities ahead.
Nature’s Resilience
Take a walk or sit in a place where you can observe nature’s strength—trees standing tall in the wind, plants growing through cracks in the earth, or animals adapting to the season. Reflect on how nature mirrors your own resilience.
Share your Experience
If you are comfortable sharing some of your reflections or your experience participating in our Year of Listening journey, we invite you to continue the conversation over on our social media pages!
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