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Listening to oneself- 7-Aug-2010
Listening is a primary skill everyone should learn, as it is the base all communications. Family, school and neither individuals do not worry about improving this important skill. The art of communication lies not in talking smartly but rather listening patiently.
Listening requires tremendous amount patience which can be learnt only through persistent parctice. Everyone has some problem or the other with listening as it is not given due importance both at home or at school in the right way.
The biggest worry of parents these days is that their children do not listen to them. This habit of 'not listening' carries on until someday some soft skills instructor teaches 'how to listen'.
Everyone likes people who listen to us; because when someone gives us a patient hearing we feel that they understand us. The need to be understood is the most basic human need.
Listening involves a lot more than just our two ears. Hearing is influenced by our conditioning, our opinions, and our belief systems, hence, most of the times we hear what we wish to hear. The words spoken by others pass through many layers of filters before reaching our mind which the mind finally deciphers is very different from what the speaker meant to convey. This gap in the spoken and heard word leads to misunderstandings, disharmony and conflicts in our lives.
So how is listening different from hearing? Listening is an inner process. It moves beyond hearing. It is difficult to explain in words. A person cannot listen to others because he doent know how to listen to himself. Our inner self is constantly communicating with us through our feelings, thoughts and emotions. This communication is also known as intuition, which means instruction from within.
To be able to truly listen we need to train ourselves to go beyond hearing. We need to involve our heart along with our ears. When we learn to listen to our own deepest truths, we can listen to those of others as well. Listening helps us discover ourselves and others.
Listening begins with deep contemplation. In order to truly listen we need to drop our disguises. We need to free ourselves of our self-imposed inhibitions.
The more we listen to our inner instructions the more aware we become of the outside world.
So wake up and listen.
