Listening is an Act of Love

[Revolutionary Think]

I was thinking about how from time to time a rant against employers on this forum. Then I remembered when I went to this exhibit called Not an Ostrich at the Annenburg https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/exhibits/not-an-ostrich/ it's about people across America who have a story to tell. I also got a free book as well with the same name of this post. When I was there I was listening to so many rich stories about random people across the country their struggles, triumphs, and everyday life. 

Well anyway my point is a lot of people can always tell a person what to do and what to think with out actually listening to them. They just hear a person and just take a time to formulate a response you see this a lot on reddit and YouTube comment fights. I think that since this is about self actualization I think it's better if we take the time to actually listen to people take the time to validate them and then and only then should we give the advice. A lot of people can just say stop doing this and stop doing that etc. yet, I think the people who actually make the difference are the ones that can say I feel your pain I've been there before and even if you haven't been there then at least say wow I can't imagine how that can feel must have made you feel ______ and then go into your advice and even then try not to go into judgement mode. We all have our stories and things that happened to us that were less than optimal. I think if we take more time to actually understand rather than to jump to conclusions and judge then we can really communicate better with each other and be more effective. 

Anyway this is the story I recorded at the Annenburg https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/beating-the-odds/. 

[SpyAquamarine]

Listening is a powerful medicine. As we allow the other to speak and just listen to them with all of our attention, no judgements, no projections, no solutions, tips, advice, we hold space so they can hear the ecos of their own thoughts and understand themselves better, see the other side of the story they are telling.