Can You Listen?

How approachable are you, really? It is the strangest feeling when we are travelling along in our own bubble of self-perception and then out of nowhere, WHAM, we are emotionally knocked for six as someone tells us, a completely different story about who we are and why or what we’ve done. Taking on board another person’s viewpoint can be terrifying, liberating, confusing or clarifying. It depends on how AWARE you actually are, not only about yourself and what makes you tick, but how the world sees you. WHAT IS LISTENING? A simple way of defining LISTENING is your own ability to pay attention ant interpret what is said to you. To be fair, sometimes we hear what we want to hear or bring our life experiences to the table, often without realising it. How we listen connects to our skills in communicating what we need from other people. It is the platform for all healthy and positive relationships that we have, from personal to professional. Part of having great listening skills is growing the ability to avoid just listening and hear what is being said. We need to take it in, think about it and not discard what someone says simply because it challenges us.