A World Without Racism Listens
What other ways do you spread the listening philosophy? Please click here to share your ideas.
Listening
Why is it Important?
Surely it is important for us to feel heard, but as all things in life are, everything goes both ways. If we want to be listened to and heard, it is crucial for us to practice good listening skills as well. Oftentimes people consider listening as a passive activity and think you just need to sit back and let a person talk in your presence. This is not the case, and when this does happen, it tends to lead to the speaker needing to ask the question of “are you listening to me?” to get the attention of the listener and to snap them out of their own thoughts. When this happens the listener hears the words but doesn’t listen to them. Hearing is simply the automatic response our brain has to sounds and requires zero effort on our end. Those sounds around us can be filtered out by us to not even pay attention to things that we don’t deem as meaningful. Contrarily, listening takes effort. When we are truly listening to someone we are concentrating on what they are saying.
Listening
Why is it Important?
As previously alluded to, listening is something that is very important. It is beneficial to point out that prior to the days in which writing existed all information was passed down verbally. As such, it was absolutely necessary to be actively listening in order to preserve the history and culture. Now the benefits of listening have slipped down in people’s perception due to the fact that we do have a lot of written information. People do not value it as much since it’s not a one-and-done thing anymore, and they can easily rewatch a video or reread something if their attention slipped. That being said, there are definitely still benefits of listening even in the society that we live in today.
Listening
Why is it Important?
One obvious benefit comes in academics. Although now with the pandemic things have slightly changed, for the most part, education deals a lot of the time with listening. When students focus on what is being presented in class they are able to decide its meaning and use critical thinking to analyze the material and draw conclusions. You can take better notes and remember the information better. If you listen carefully, and actively, you will be able to pick up on verbal cues and it will bring even more benefit to you in your academic path.
Listening
Why is it Important?
Another aspect that is beneficial to good listening is that people will see you as intelligent and perceptive. This is so because when you actively listen you portray your interest in others and their topics, and when you are able to understand what is being said to you it makes you more knowledgeable overall. As such, it is an educational experience for you to listen to others and gain knowledge in many spheres of topics.
Listening
Why is it Important?
Good listening will also help you become a better public speaker. When you actually listen to other people you pick up information in regards to how people talk, how they come to conclusions, the structure of their arguments, and so forth, and as a result, you are able to analyze and gather this information and use it to your benefit. You can synthesize all of this information and cater your speeches to better suit a large array of audiences.
Listening
Why is it Important?
Other more straightforward benefits of listening include:
- It builds trust and respect because it lets the speaker know that you care about them and what they are saying. As a result, the person will feel open towards you and is more likely to come back to you when they have other information that they want to entrust.
- When you actually listen you have a better chance of understanding what is being said to you, and you are able to have empathy towards the person, and you’re even able to help cater your solutions and responses that you give to them based on their needs. It also helps reduce the chance of miscommunication.
- Bouncing off of miscommunication, active listening also helps to eliminate conflict and anger. When you listen actively, you are truly listening to what the person is saying and you are engaging with them instead of letting your emotions overpower and jumping to conclusions.
What other ways do you spread the listening philosophy? Please click here to share your ideas, we’d all love to learn more ways to spread listening! Listen. Take care and stay connected.
