I Know You Hear Me, But Are You Listening???

I am notorious for walking around with headphones in with no sound coming through them. Why? Because I am not trying hear anything that does not feed my mind positive nutrition. I am not subscribing to the kool-aid! It works too. People think I can't hear them; they are partially right. I can hear, but I will allow them to think I can't so I don't have to listen. So today let's discover the difference between hearing and listening. 

Hearing is your ears recognizing noises. It takes no effort, it's involuntary, meaning it happens whether we want to or not. We accidentally hear stuff we're not "supposed" to hear... And then we start listening. Do you know the difference???

Listening my friends, is taking those noises that your ears recognized and decoding the message. Decoding is the conscious processing of the sounds and making sense of what was heard. However, that is only the beginning of listening.

I'd like to go more in depth on this listening subject. Introducing to some and presenting to others: Active Listening. As an educator, I tell my students to listen with their whole body, not just their ears. Your eyes should be on the speaker, my last group of kids taught me it's called "tracking". The art of conversation comes into play at this point. You want to be sure to respond to what someone is saying before interjecting your thoughts on the subject. Seems like most folks open up there mouths and respond to what is in their pretty little heads; definitely a sign someone is not listening.

When we are involved in conversation, we should seek understanding not to be understood. How often do we actually encounter that??? Test your understanding by paraphrasing what you just heard and listened to, not attaching any emotion to the what is being stated. At the moment you have done the above mentioned, you ladies and gentlemen are ready to speak. 

Now that we have distinguished the difference between hearing and listening, go out and practice your new skills. Wait! One last thing, try counting two seconds before responding, and keeping intermitten comments to yourself until the messenger is done withtheir do. you may even have someone ask "Are you listening to me?" And you will be proud to say, I am. 

In the meantime and in between time, be happy, be healthy and be you!