Love to Listen

"The first duty of love is to listen". -Paul Tillich"

The effectiveness of the spoken word," say Ralph G. Nichols and Leonard A. Stevens, "hinges not so much on how people talk but mostly on how they listen." In an article in the Harvard Business Review called 'Listening to People' Nichols and Stevens analyze the practical importance of communicative reception – as ‘being with’ someone in dialogical exchange. Authentically ‘listening’ to another person is a very different activity from talking or reading and requires several different skills.

Get the research paper: Here

There have been several attempts by scholars to explain the process of communication. Depending on their background and objectives, different scholars have viewed the process of communication differently and have developed different models. But, regardless of our formal definitions, we are left with the fact that communication pervades everything we do and everything we are - strongly influencing all human activity. From war and peace among nations to whether a marriage works, from political action to personal friendship, success in work, school, or life communication and exchange are a kosmological constant.

Living in such a ‘communicative world’ thus makes good communication and listening skills vitally important to fostering positive relations and sustaining healthy forms of life.

Whether you are strengthening a relationship, resolving a conflict, or offering support in a facing a crisis, good listening skills help facilitate understanding and peace.

Learn More: Here

From CommunicationPractices.Org:

Building a Communication-Skills Movement

Imagine a personal discipline for learning communication and cooperation skills, using the routines and errands of everyday life as our classroom. It's all free because it's outside the money system entirely. But it can help us make a living, avoid trouble, improve personal relationships, and work together for a better world. In an age of arrogant and abusive institutions, we can learn skills to take back more control of our lives.

Building your own skills and practices for more full-spectrum communications (verbal, biological, physical and symbolic) between individuals and among groups will enhance your capacity for individual transformation, while also expanding the capacity of the evolving universe for love and mutual understanding. Let us know what you think...

“It is through this creative process that we at once love and are loved”

- Brenda Ueland (The Art of Listening)