Develop A New Meaning: Active Listening

Active listening ? Where are we studying this?

Before moving on to the explanation of this new power or skill that you are going to discover, you must know what its characteristics are.

This will help you understand the people around you better, your friends and relatives will feel more connected to you, and you can more easily get what you want. Are you convinced?

Few people know what active listening is and how to benefit from it. It is a more than important tool, because it helps you to relate with others, to resolve conflicts, to understand the feelings and opinions of others… It is a new meaning that we should all to develop… You do not believe it?

If we let ourselves be guided by the scientific or formal definition, we say that active listening is: “a way of paying more attention to the words (and gestures) of others, which allows to go more in depth concerning foreign points of view and to cooperate with others ”.

And what is this super power for? Did you think you were going to have the strength of the Hulk or the money of Iron Man? This new sense may be of greater use to you than making you green or rich. You will find out now …

But to get back to real life, luckily we don’t have to save the planet from villains, so developing active listening will turn you into a super hero as well.

The three most important aspects of this power are:

1- It requires an effort on your part. Thus, you will succeed in putting the interlocutor at ease, who will feel understood and free to be able to express what he wants, and he will be able to concentrate on his feelings more than on his words. But of course, the beginning is difficult, because we are not used to …

Quite simply, try to be aware of what the other person is telling you and stop focusing on what you want to say or respond, your turn will come.

2- It is not “pretending to listen”… It is listening for real! Nothing could be worse than pretending to use “your best ear” and only think about the shopping list, next weekend’s party, school or bills. Active listening has two parts: listening on one side and attitude on the other.

You listen to the other, you try to understand his words, the idea that he is transmitting to you … immerse yourself in the conversation.

3-Listening is a source of information. You may find it a little difficult at first to maintain the focus on someone who keeps talking, as that may be a topic that you are not interested in at all, but you can take advantage of the situation.

This technique can be used for good or for bad, that’s why you have to be very careful. The idea is to recompile the information to then help the other, and not to manipulate him.

This super power that we all have within us but that must be awakened generates very good feelings in the other and above all, strengthens the bonds with the people we love.

Listening actively generates trust, security and closeness. 

You can use it to resolve conflict, act as a mediator during a problem between two people, get to know your family and friends better, be someone trustworthy and also, lay a foundation to become a great communicator.

But beware… if we are talking about listening, what does this have to do with communication? It’s all the data we’ve gathered turns into a conversation, a specific piece of advice, a burst of courage.

You will be the best friend, colleague, spouse, child, father, mother, brother, sister that no one has ever had! Do you realize how much of a super power it is?

We are all different from others and we are starting to practice active listening…. Let’s put aside the “me, other me and super me” that dominates a conversation and try to pay more attention to what others are saying.

Maybe now is a good time to understand why we have one mouth and two ears… to speak half as much as to listen (or to listen to twice as much as to speak).

Now you have the power to be the hero of any story. No villain can do anything against you!