Listening

Today’s Dowsed Daily Inspiration if you Choose to Explore is… Listening

I was having a conversation the other day regarding listening vs hearing. In many ways you would think those are the same things. But how many of us truly listen, or do we simply hear what has been said? Hearing words is easy, it is truly listening to what someone is saying that is the gift. When you are really listening, you hear the things that haven’t been said. You hear the heartfelt meanings behind the words, there is so much more to listening than hearing. I often hear words being spoken, but I am doing something else and mutter uh huh, sure, ok, something appropriate to have the speaker stop talking and let me get back to what I was doing. How often do we do this with our children? With our spouses? With our parents? Would it not be a gift to them to give them our undivided attention and truly LISTEN? Now for some practice. Next time someone talks to you put away your device, look them in the eye, show them you are interested in what they are saying by being attentive, asking questions, repeat what you think you heard, elicit conversation, make  appropriate comments not put offs like uh huh, yeah, etc.

DELVE DEEPER

Q1: To what degree is this message for me?

Q2: To what degree am I in alignment with this message?

Q3: To what degree do I truly listen when someone speaks to me?

Q4: To what degree do I hear the true meaning conveyed in the words?

Q5: To what degree do I hear more than I listen?

Q6: To what degree do I listen more than I hear?

Q7: To what degree do I give others my undivided attention when they are speaking to me?

Q8: To what degree do I spend more time ‘listening’ to what people are texting on my phone than listening to the person spending time with me?

Q9: To what degree would I feel better about myself if I truly listened to people when they talked to me?

Q10: To what degree would the other person feel better about themselves if I truly listened to what they were saying?

Q11: To what degree would my life improve if I spent more time listening to others?

REFLECTIONS

Reflect on what listening means to you? Reflect on what you feel the differences are between listening and hearing. Give yourself an example of the last time you were trying to communicate with someone and they were not listening? Oh sure they were probably hearing your words, but they were not listening. How did it make you feel? When is the last time you did the same thing to someone else?  Have you ever watched the light go out in some child’s eyes when they realized you were not listening to what they were trying to tell you. Something that was important to them, but not necessarily important to you. Would it be so hard to practice the gift of Listening?