Our Daily Wisdom Word today is listening. Oftentimes, we hear another person and may listen to what they say. however, if this isn’t conveyed to the person we are listening to, they may assume we did not listen to them. Perhaps you have heard of “active listening”. Active listening has benefits to the person who is talking as well as the person listening.
The ultimate goal is to show another person who is communicating that you are hearing them with all senses while finding we gain additional interest in what the person is sharing with us. How do we accomplish this? There are several ways to actively listen.
1. we listen with all of our senses. 2. Using eye contact and physical nodding at appropriate points during the listening phase as the listener. 3. Paraphrasing what a person is saying to clarify you understand and hear the other person’s message. 4. not interrupting while the person is talking or rushing them to convey their message. This allows the person sharing the message to feel “heard”.
This additional effort ultimately benefits both parties and I can’t stress enough how much better my conversations are when I practice these simple techniques. By nature, I am impatient, and I even know when I am not listening “well” right after I see myself losing patience in a conversation. I no longer ask the other person through paraphrasing their message what the specific message was. Instead I find myself assuming what their message is and at times, even cutting them short.
Often I have heard in the past that I am not hearing them or what they have to say, as they are irritated they are not getting their message across in a way that is clear and somehow lost in transition between them and myself. I am cognizant I am not listening in the best way I know how due to a lack of patience. I then find myself taking full accountability and realizing that I need to work on my active listening skills. Often times we all think that silence means we need to offer some kind of word “fillers” out there when the conversation and communication is coming from another person.
It is okay to have some silence between talking to one another. This sometimes will give the communicator time to form their words in a way that is better clarified to the listener they are speaking with. At the very least, we should allow conversation to take place and process information/message being shared with us. It is as the very least, about courtesy and putting stock into valuing the other person talking to us and truly hearing and processing with mutual respect what the other party has to say and over time, learning to be a better listener to all of those we visit with.
Thanks for reading about listening today, especially actively listening. Please share/comment beneath the post in the “join the discussion” area. Your contributions are invaluable to me.
Samantha LeBoeuf/dailywisdomwords.com
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