Articles

The Art Of Listening

The practice of the Art of Listening contributes equally with Art of Speaking in the creative process we call "speech." Even so, in our culture the value for listening has atrophied along with the capability and competence to listen deeply. Where a good listener is able to facilitate the emergence of the thoughts in the speaking of another. A poor listener, will be experienced by others as a form of attack causeing a constriction in the thoughts and speech of others thereby limiting the creative process.

Because of this fact, listening is a major structural component to speech. Without listening there is no point in speaking and the kind and quality of listening one brings to the speaker's experience is crucial to how the thoughts, insights and ideas of the speaker evolve.

Three Types Of Listening

• Active Listening: where the listener's mind is already made up and actively compares what is being heard with what one already knows. The active listener is actively, mentally, agreeing or disagreeing with what is being said. How do we recognize something new and innovative when we are looking to find the familiar in what we hear?

• Passive Listening: what we use when listening to music. We experience the highs and lows of emotions and sensations that the music engenders but we do not retain any of it. In passive listening, the conversation just washes over us without making an impact.

• Undirected Listening: is what happens when listening remains open and unqualified. Where the mind of the listener is not already made up and is receptive to finding something new. It is the kind of listening that proceeds from the point of view that the speaker has wisdom and intelligence that deserves to be heard. It is the kind of listening that facilitates the emergence of new ways of seeing, believing and behaving in the speaker. And it is the kind of listening that allows the listener to be transformed by what is being conveyed.