TIPS AND TRICKS

Want to Be a Better Listener? Practice Quieting Your Mind.
Listening can be very difficult, especially when people are talking truthfully about emotional topics. Because people haven’t sorted through everything they’re thinking and feelings, often their words come out slowly or a little jumbled. Waiting for someone to work through what they’re feeling requires a lot of patience and self-control. Your mind will want to wander away from what the speaker’s talking about and toy around with easier, faster-moving, more comfortable thoughts.

Fight that impulse to retreat into yourself and let the conversation be about your partner. “Effective listeners take their ego and put it on the shelf,” says Leslie Shore, author Listen to Succeed. “There’s always a film of ego that gets all over what’s coming into you as a listener. This is where the biggest amount of practice is needed. The way you know that’s happening is that you have mind chatter. The moment that you have mind chatter, you need to put the ego aside and start listening.”