"You are important to me". "You are worth my time and my attention." "You are saying something worth hearing." "You are really an interesting person" "You are OK". These are some of the messages that listening to another conveys.
In fact our own silence can communicate so much "If you do not understand my silence, you will not understand my words." How is that for a quotation? Talking is only one of the many ways of sharing. It may be the least effective. A touch, a gesture, a tone, a shrug, a wink or a smile: these and other signs and symbols are so much more communicative.
Listening is powerful and affirmative. Hardly anything is more healing-more calming- more creative-more nourishing-more loving. A decision to listen is really a decision to love, and we all know how powerful love is.
The most neglected art, courtesy and necessity today is that of listening. Here are some considerations:
1) Hearing is not listening. Hearing does'nt make communication, listening does.
2) Listening must take place at two levels, the level of words and the level of feelings.
3) You cant listening to another unless you listen to yourself. If you can't hear your own feelings, you will never hear this.
4) Exploration is one thing, argumentation another. Argumentation is usually the end of listening.
5) Just avoiding interruption would be a great leap forward for many.
6) People need others and today it is more than ever, people need listening.
7)The first duty of love is to listen. To listen is to understand. To understand is to listen.
Can anyone hear me? :D
PS: Excerpts from E.H. McGrath
No comments:
Post a Comment