Monday 17 February 2020

THE ART OF LISTENING


THE ART OF LISTENING

THE ART OF LISTENING
MOST MEMORABLE LISTENING IN LIFE
Image Courtesy: https://pxhere.com/
Have you ever wondered if there is any art of listening? 

And in fact, what is the difference between hearing and listening?

What exactly is the role played by applying the art of listening in our daily life?

And what is the scope of application of the art of listening?

How it will help us to achieve the desired transformation in life?

Do you know that you can listen to your body?

And your mind?

Or does your mind listen to you?

So many interesting questions, isn't it?

Well, this article is on the significant wisdom learnt while finding the answers to the above questions and their practical applications in our life. This helps one to live daily with ease, comfort, meaningfully in a significant manner on the path of living a fulfilled life.


THE ART OF LISTENING



Generally one gets confused between the process of hearing and listening.

Merriam-Webster defines hearing as the "process, function or power of perceiving sound; specifically : the special sense by which noises and tones are received as stimuli".

Listening, on the other hand, means "to pay attention to sound, to hear something with thoughtful attention; and to give consideration."


You might often have heard the comments from your near and dear ones- like 'You are not listening to me!'

It is interesting to know that -
  1. Hearing and Listening uses both the ears.
  2. Hearing is receiving sound waves through ears while listening means hearing and understanding what we have heard.
  3. Hearing is part of the five senses, while listening is a choice to hear and analyze what we hear.
  4. Hearing is using our ears only, while listening is using our body's other senses
  5. Listening is observing other's behavior that can add meaning to the message, while hearing is simply receiving sound vibrations.
  6. .Listening can build better relationship with others while hearing can not.
  7. Take good care of our ears. Because we cannot listen when we cannot hear.
(Source: differencebetween.net)


THE ART OF LISTENING -THE MEANING


We all  have heard the popular phrases -like the Art of Living- the Art of Dying- the Art of Thinking for Better Life - the Art of Reading  for achieving Life Transformation and so on. 

When we face inevitable challenges in life,we find certain processes hard and cumbersome, boring, needing hard work and continuous efforts to meet them. 

At such times, we wonder if at all there is any art of doing the same.  

Because learning the required art makes the whole exercise easy and comfortable and even enjoyable. For example, cycling.

What is the art of listening?- The need to understand.

The purpose is to understand the art, learn and apply the same for our own advantage to make our own life easy and comfortable while achieving our purpose to achieve the sense of fulfillment in life. 

Know what. we hear so many sounds using our hearing sense.  And our ears are open to all kinds of sounds.  Like eyes, we cannot open and close our ears for selecting purpose.  I mean, we cannot open our ears to listen to the only desired and selected sounds.  Nor we can close our ears to stay away from the undesired sounds. 

The effective way is to listen to only those sounds which we desire and need to in the process of achieving our purpose.

Here the process of listening plays important role.  And understanding the art of listening  enables us to exercise option of applying our ability to listen only to the meaningful, significant and valued sounds having potentials to make our life easy, comfortable, meaningful on the path of achieving fulfillment in life. 

And that is achieving overall transformation in life.



The Art of Listening
THE ART OF LISTENING KEENLY
Image Courtesy: https://pxhere.com/


Have you ever wondered as to how many different kinds of approaches are involved when you listen to others?

Let us see. 

If you observe carefully, you will find that when you listen to some body, you -
  • have decided to do so
  • are determined to listen
  • stop talking
  • are alert to listen
  • try to make the speaker to feel at ease and open up
  • avoid disturbances
  • concentrate at what  the speaker has to say
  • avoid impatience
  • show your concern with what the speaker has to say
  • show your empathy
  • have open mindedness 
  • listen to the central ideas
  • interpret the tone of the speaker
  • are likely to know the  hidden messages of the speaker
(Source: The 10 principles of listening)


THE ART OF LISTENING - ITS IMPORTANCE

We can understand and draw inferences of what is said only when we  listen to what is stated. 

If we are not careful while listening, we are likely to miss what is being communicated.  In this sense, effective listening is essential for effective communication. 

And failure to do so, leads to misunderstanding and wrong interpretation of the messages being communicated, and wrong decisions based on that.

THE ART OF LISTENING- ADVANTAGES

Listening with patience enables us to -
  • understand the problems being discussed
  • understand the exact needs of the speaker
  • work on the probable solutions to the problems
  • command respect from others
  • build good relationship with others
  • attract others eager to share and discuss their problems.

THE ART OF LISTENING- RESULTS OF POOR LISTENING 

Poor listening may result in -
  • taking things for granted
  • misunderstanding
  • errors in judgments
  • wrong decisions
  • harming mutual trust

THE ART OF LISTENING- SIGNS OF A GOOD LISTENER

You are a good listener if you -
  • pay full attention while listening
  • keep eye contact with the speaker
  • do not interrupt the speaker 
  • listen with keen interest
  • try to avoid looking at some thing else more interesting while listening
I remember one cartoon showing annual get together of alumni of a famous college, sitting engrossed in their own mobiles and ignoring the old friends.

THE ART OF LISTENING-  for security purpose and political gains.

The Govt. security agencies do not hesitate to listen to the telephonic conversations of the potential secret agents of the  enemy nation in national security point of view.

In the democratic countries, during election campaign, phone tapping is normal phenomena the ruling party resort to. And there are lot of  heated debates during the election period waning out in due course.

THE ART OF LISTENING


As mentioned above, having understood the meaning and significance of the art of listening next important step is to implement the same in our own daily life.  

Because only knowledge is not sufficient. It must be practiced in real life.  

This makes our life easy, comfortable. This also enables us to make optimum utilization of the  important resources viz. time, money and human resources.

And the result achieved will essentially be associated with our life connected with the external world.

THE ART OF LISTENING TO THE BODY AND MIND

Now let us consider the subtle aspects of the art of listening.

Have you ever listened to your body while indulging in your favorite dish? 

One serve, and you desire to have one more, and one more and one more. The craving is tempting and insatiable. 

But at one stage your body says, enough now !  Please, stop now, for God's sake. 

Do you listen to what your body says? 

Or you listen to what your mind says asking for more and fulfill the desire?

And you know what happens, if you do not listen to your body? 

Upset stomach, bloating, indigestion and so on. In short,  you face the consequences at body level.

THE ART OF LISTENING TO THE INNER VOICE

Here, the question arises as to what about the internal world?

The world we live in is the way it has been and it will remain so for ever.  

The only thing we must be aware of is that it is our own responsibility to receive minimum damage in the world we live in.

For this, another important aspect of the art of listening must be understood. And that is one must listen to own inner voice i.e. sarasar vivek (power of discretion).

It is our experience that while indulging in some interesting acts, we often feel that the thing we are doing at the moment should not be done because it is wrong, unethical, amoral and unnatural. 

But still we yield to temptations to do so because of the desires dominating our minds - because of the interests, passions, craziness and of course vested interests involved. 

For this reason, we are unable to listen to our own inner voice.  

And the result is inevitable downfall in our own life, leading to a miserable life. 

And consequently we face sadness, frustration, depression, isolation, inferiority complex, and even mental disorders and misery in the life.

This sarasar vivek enables us to understand various important polarities in our life - like truth and untruth, right and wrong, moral and amoral, ethical and unethical, justice and injustice, and so on. And the life is full of polarities.

This understanding of polarities in life enables us to make right choice before making decisions in our daily life.

Not only that, this knowledge  builds confidence in us to accept the consequences of our own right decision making.

Therefore, the art of listening plays vital role in our life, directing us to move on the path of attaining peace of mind and fulfillment in life.

In short,we must understand that the art of listening enables us to-
  • live our life with peace of mind, ease, and significantly meaningful.
  • discover happiness instead of running after fulfilling of our desires one after another.
  • ignore peripheral things and pay attention to the core issues.
  • prioritize our desires to be fulfilled.
  • choose properly when to pay attention to the desires, body and mind.
  • differentiate between our body, mind and spirit.

THE ART OF LISTENING 

Let us not forget that for applying this Art of Listening in our daily life requires strong determination, strict discipline and a lot of personal sacrifices in the life. 

And having applied the same in daily life, the fulfillment achieved in the life is sustainable for a longer duration.

If we are serious to live life lightly, easily and comfortably, well, applying the art of listening in daily life will surely help us to realize it.

Friends, do not forget to comment on this article. 

Thanks for reading!

Next time......

2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. True. Listening is indeed an art.

    ReplyDelete

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