Today I am not going to write, suggest or share with you anything.
But today, I would just want to ask you certain questions related with listening.
What does listening mean to you?
Why is it important for us to listen to someone?
Can’t we be happy with our own voices and speaking skills always?
Do we really listen to everyone with whom we communicate?
Do we listen from our ears or do we have our eyes also as our listening organs?
Do we really need to hone our listening skills? If yes, then how?
And is listening really an important gift to be given to others in our life? And when someone gives us this gift, should we really treasure it always?
Credits:Google Images
All the above questions were prompted by this quote from the Spirit Science which was shared by one of my students.
And now, do you also believe in this quote?
Yes or no, whatever may be your case. Share with me your answers.
Ma’am, listening means to me a way of building up relationships with others. It is one of the most effective ways to built lasting relations. If you listen carefully to others, you built trust, which I think is the foundation in any relationship.
If you observe others and listen them carefully then many good qualities develop inside you as well,like it gives you calmness, gives you strength to take decision wisely in odd situations, and learn from experiences of others and many more such things.
When you listen to others then same time you also find that you listen to yourself more correctly and better.
Listening is not related to ears only it is a process to listen from every organ of the body like Hellen Keller did. Do you hear yourself by ears? No 🙂
Listening is a gift in life. We should listen to everyone like nature, people, animals etc. You will find every single thing on earth speak.
Dear Abhijeet,
I am extremely happy to read your comments.
In fact I feel that you have really worked a lot on your listening skills in the last couple of months. And your ideas, thoughts, expressions and confidence are beautiful result of empathetic and constructive listening skills. You are right, for any relationship to develop and mature, listening is the key. If we could listen to other person without any roadblock, we could really understand the words said and the meaning hidden in the unsaid words.
Listening indeed transfers many insights, knowledge, attitude and behavioral patters inside us and we must be active and yet critical listener in such cases of transfer.
In the moments of solitude and process of listening to others, we indeed listen to the latent voices deep inside us and we must focus on this internal dialogue with us everyday.
And by giving the apt example of Helen Keller, you stole my words. There is so much to listen and learn from her story. At times, I feel most of the people visually challenged with their 6 by 6 eye sight.
I am happy that you receive this gift from nature and pass it on to others in life …blessings with you always:)
Listening an art long lost needs revival for the social upliftment of the society. People not only want to be heard; they need to be heard. No technological advance is likely to change this basic tenet of human nature.
Listening involves attention, being present, and hospitality, and it is a component of devotion, nurturing, and wonder.
Listening is an essential part of the discernment process whereby we identify God’s messages for us. Listening enables us to tune in to others and our inner voices of intuition and conscience. It is how we know we are part of the natural, technological, and media worlds all around us.
But it takes practice to be a really good listener. Start by listening like a baby does upon encountering a sound for the first time. Then listen like a child, noticing music, rhythm, and the variety of noises.
There is perhaps no greater way to show our regard for our friends, family, and associates than to truly listen to them. The “listening heart,” as this attitude is called, leads to a deepening of relationships and a greater sense of self for all parties. And this kind of communication isn’t limited to human interactions. Listen to an animal, the waves on the beach, or the roar of a city neighborhood, and you will come to a greater appreciation of your place in the universe.
In the end word listen are the same letters that make up the word silent. This is a powerful indication that silence is an important part of listening more effectively.
Dear Mohit,
Many thanks for listening to me and responding appreciatively to the questions asked.
You are absolutely right that the listening art needs to be revised and we must take consistent efforts for that. And I am happy to see a whole community of appreciative listeners around me. This art, I believe, needs more attention today when noise has become so loud all around us, than ever before.
Chinese symbol represents beautifully all the components of listening and you explained them all so well.
Listening takes time, takes devotion, needs complete attentions and requires perseverance at times but alas, despite all this knowledge, at times we fail miserably. But we must know and keep going always.
This is truly a precious gift to be given to our children, students, spouse, friends and parents and that could make our life so rich and meaningful.
Very well said at the end, SILENT AND LISTEN, make it one in the end.
Many thanks for your wonderful and insightful thoughts and I am happy to receive many precious listening gifts today. Bless u always 🙂
Thank you
Many thanks for listening to me Rubal!
Congrats and stay blessed always 🙂
Ma’am I think effective listening converts a normal/useless conversation into a meaningful conversation.
Listener knows what relevant matter to say in the reply.
Not listening leads to not understanding.
And this makes a speaker to repeat its words.
This gives a foolish impact about the listener.
So listening is the key to successful conversation
That’s why listening is the sincere form of respect
Dear Prashant,
Welcome aboard! Thanks for sharing wonderful ideas and thoughts.
Your reply indeed shows what it means to give the gift of listening to someone. It shows your deeper understanding, regard, appreciation and love for the communicator. You are right, it is the ability of a good listener who can add richer meaning and wider dimension to the entire cycle of communication and I am happy that you made my communication richer, complete and effective with your response and comment.
Stay connected, keep writing and bless u always:)
I remember the Chinese symbol for listening you taught us ma’am which tells us that to listen we must use both ears, watch and maintain eye contact, give undivided attention, and finally be empathetic.
For me listening involves
1. Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.
2. Be non judgmental
3. Give your undivided attention to the speaker
4. Use silence effectively
There is a Sanskrit shloka which emphasize the importance of listening…
शुश्रूषा श्रवणं चैव ग्रहणं धारणां तथा ।
ऊहापोहोऽर्थ विज्ञानं तत्त्वज्ञानं च धीगुणाः ॥
Willing to listen, to actually listen, to understand what we listen, to be able to remember what we have listened, to be able to deduce some conclusions and put forth arguments, to be able to formalise and conclusively put forth the thought, knowledge of the around and philosophy – these are the eight facets of ‘buddhi’.
Listening, thus forms the base of wisdom. Then why not treasure it always.
I am so happy to know Shatrughna that you still remember the Chinese symbol for listening.
You have explained the concept so well and it truly proves your brilliant listening skills. The four points, in short, explain what it means to listen.
Many thanks to you dear for sharing the Sanskrit Shloka and writing its paraphrase so that all the readers could benefit from this brilliant wisdom nugget. I feel that with students like you, we could revive the glory on Indian Takshila and Nalanda soon.
Keep sharing your wisdom nuggets always and make this platform wealthier and wiser with your writing presence. Bless you always 🙂
A good listner is always a good speaker and vice-versa.
Listen to everyone , store what you feel is right and just delete the rest.
Although, developing this habit is a tuff task which really requires a divine soul as well as a healthy mental and physical structure.
Once you make yourself capable of judging the right things first , the evil or bad or rotten words will automatically skip from your brain.
All it takes is Meditation , yoga and few other good habits which you have mentioned throughout your blog posts published here on wordpress.
I love listening to others.Observing people’s thoughts and their views, extracting the good things for healthy brain, the funny things for amusement and flush out the waste from the conversation.
And this habit has improvised a new good habit within me and that is “to recollect ” the important talks and conversations… As far as i remember someday , somebody promised me to Give some audios and so onnnn… and Am still waiting…To listen!
“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows a lot.” And thus we can say that a good listener is a good speaker.
As we discussed, listening requires patience, response, interpretation of verbal and non-verbal clues and much more than mere deciphering of the words spoken by the speaker and thus acquiring this skill becomes a tough task for anyone. But once we master this art, we not only gain a competitive edge, but we also give this caring gift to others. In this world full of noise where we live in, it is important for us to learn and master this art for then we would know the true meaning of this saying that,” Ignorance shouts, knowledge speaks and wisdom listens.”
Do not worry about the promise, for soon it will be fulfilled. Because your wish is my command.
Blessing and best wishes always:)