Mindful Listening

Communication is fundamental in every humans life, therefore learning to communicate effectively is crucial. Successful communication can help people share important information, provide a more efficient workspace, reach their goals, and develop healthy and positive relationships whether personal or professional. Because everyone communicates on a daily basis, whether it’s vocal, through gestures, or even over social media, it’s important to do so in the most productive way. Unfortunately, it’s harder said than done. With many distractions, feelings, and opinions it can sometimes be difficult to listen and respond the way we should. Additionally, dealing with people who show behaviors that make them difficult to interact with makes it feel

Although I may try to listen, I learned that a difficult challenge of mine is fully paying attention and understanding the speaker. Reading chapter 7 of Interplay has helped me learn the different types of listening, and how our brain processes information with each kind. Two types of listening that stood out to me were mindful listening, and mindless listening. I notice that when my significant other is talking about something I find important, for example problems in our relationship, how he’s doing in school, and updates on his job search, I, “tune in carefully,” and give him my complete undivided attention (Adler et al, 198). However, when someone is talking about something they’ve already talked about before, I tend to listen mindlessly and be lazy with my responses, giving no thought. Adler explains that, “Sometimes we respond mindlessly to information that deserves and even demands our mindful attention” (198). Although it’s impractical to pay full attention to something you’ve heard multiple times before, I’ve learned that tuning out to these remarks can make you miss an important message. For instance, at work I have a manager who likes to constantly check up on everyone to see what they’re working on, and to make sure they know what needs to be done. Because of the countless times he will repeat to me what projects I need to finish, I tend to tune out when he’s talking and quickly respond with words like, “yep got it” and “okay.” However, because of this I once missed an important task that needed to be done before I moved on to something else. That situation has taught me that I need to practice more on mindful listening so I don’t miss out on important