Mindful Listening

During this course I have had the opportunity to read and review “Personal Relationships and Health”, “Fierce Conversations”, “Mindful Listening”, “I Hear You, and I Have a Different Perspective”, “Communicating Closeness: Intimacy, Affection, and Social Support”, and “What Are the Functions of Nonverbal Communication?” Each of these articles describes how healthy personal relationships are a result of positive communication and are an essential part of our lives. Positive communication is more than just the spoken words. It encompasses fierce conversations, mindful listening, conflict management and nonverbal communication. Positive communication strengthens relationships and enhances intimacy that ultimately improves physical and mental
Being honest with the person that you are communicating and by giving careful and thoughtful attention and response to the messages we receive, mindfully listening. Rebecca Shafir’s article “Mindful Listening” was written to promote the value of mindfulness and the positive impact mindfulness will have as we encounter important present-tense experiences. The concept that being truly present in a conversation will enhance the personal relationship was inspiring. Mindful listening requires the mind and body to work together to communicate requiring you to see, hear, and feel with your whole being. When we listen mindfully, we improve our personal relationships. A good listener will attend their speech and be sensitive to the accuracy of the message and the possible interpretations that could be derived from it, as well as, encourage a speaker to speak from his or her heart and expound on his or her ideas without censure. Although multi-tasking is a valuable skill, it hinders our ability to live mindfully because while we are busy making sure that everything gets done, we forget to live in the present. When you learn to listen mindfully, your perception is heightened and you experience multilevel
I felt this correlated well with how to respond nondefensively to criticism. By giving careful and thoughtful attention and response to the messages we receive, we are better able to respond nondefensively by asking for more information, paraphrasing the speaker’s ideas, asking additional questions as well as agreeing with facts that are given. I have already begun to improve my listening skills to become a more mindful listener, and I am encouraged that I will be able to provide better customer service in my professional career by using the strategies to respond nondefensively to criticism.
Campbell emphasized the fact that two people can have differing perspectives without fault finding or blaming. I felt this correlated to confirming communication, messages that convey value, such as recognition and acknowledgement rather than disconfirming communication, messages that show lack of regard, resulting in each person feeling free to communicate their feelings without fear. I used this phrase in a discussion with my husband this week and we were able to disagree with each other and still express our thoughts on the subject without any arguments or hurt