Why is Authentic Listening significant?
It is significant because Listening is an act of love. It is respectful and builds trust. You demonstrate love when you give your time, your attention, your ears, and your heart to another. Being an authentic listener will help you to create better and more intimate relationships both personally and professionally. When you are authentically listening, you are non-judgmental and open, which allows for new information to come in by being present, attentive, and empathetic. You are present without distraction. You’re not thinking about anything else. You’re not thinking about what you’re going to say when they finish. You’re not interrupting. Instead, your respectful, thoughtful, and courteous. This provides a “safe” space for the person talking, to be open, honest, and vulnerable. By doing so, this builds trust, allowing for a much deeper, stronger, and more meaningful relationship to develop.
What is Authentic Listening? Authentic Listening is one of the highest forms of respect you can offer another human being, which is an act of love. Therefore,
we encourage you to make it a lifestyle of your beingness to BE an Authentic Listener. BE present. BE attentive. BE considerate. BE thoughtful. BE empathetic. BE respectful. Authentic Listening is listening to understand. Practice your BE, DO and HAVE. (BE) an authentic listener by giving (DO) your time and attention and in doing so you will (HAVE) deeper and more meaningful connected relationships. Authentic Listening is Above the Line Thinking.
“Understand this, my beloved brothers, and sisters. Let everyone be quick to hear [be a careful, thoughtful listener], slow to speak [a speaker of carefully chosen words and], slow to anger [patient, reflective, forgiving]” (AMP, James 1:19).
What isn’t Authentic Listening? It isn’t 1) Listening to respond 2) Listening to agree “I’m right” or 3) Listening to disagree “You’re wrong.”
· When I’m thinking about an answer while they’re talking – I’m not listening
· When I give unsolicited advice – I’m not listening
· When I suggest they shouldn’t feel the way they do – I’m not listening
· When I apply a quick fix to their issue – I’m not listening
· When I fail to maintain eye contact (distracted) – I’m not listening
· When they share a difficult experience and I counter with one of my own – I’m not listening
“A wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke: The less he spoke, the more he heard: Why aren’t we all like that old wise bird?” – Unknown Author
Who in your life does not feel heard by you? and what are the prices you are paying
for not listening authentically?
*Give yourself the gift of experiencing 52 Lessons in the My Agreements with Me for Believers workbook. Learn even more about the relationship you have with your word and so much more.