Listening with Awareness
It's so simple and you probably already listen with awareness, but you may not know that you do.
If you compare what is being said to your own knowledge without judgment, you already listen with awareness.
If you mentally seek congruence in tone and body language, you already listen with awareness.
That's it!
Simple right?
Simple enough, but to be on the safe side, I'll elaborate.
(I love to elaborate!)
In order to listen with awareness, it is important to accept another's communication, compare with what you already know about people, history, events, etc, and simply note how it fits with your own knowledge.
It's important to do this without judgment or pointing out fallacies.
Remember, you are trying to deepen your relationship with this person, correct? That's difficult to accomplish while pointing out their flaws in logic. (I'm just saying!)
Second, in order to listen with awareness, it is important to note whether the communication matches the speaker's tone and posture. If they are describing something happy, they should look and sound happy. That's called congruence.
If they look relaxed while describing a stressful event, something is amiss. Being aware will help you note these discrepancies and ask for clarification. It's okay to tell friends that their body language seems to bely their words. Asking for clarification will deepen your relationship by increasing the capacity for accurate communication. In other words, you'll each understand one another better because you are more aware.
How aware are you in conversations? Is it something you are willing to work on?
Tomorrow's post is about Total Listening. Mm! Sounds intriguing! Until then, peace!
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