Three Ways Listening is a Form of Compassion

We are compassionate with others usually when we are communicating with others. Communication requires that at least one person listens.

For some reason, we tend to think about what we are going to say before the person we are talking with finishes their sentence. In a world where conversations can help a leader, listening is the most important skill we can have.

How can we develop listening skills? First, we need to make listening more than just being silent, we need to to make the conversation cooperative, and we need to understand.

Don’t Be Silent

Listening isn’t just being silent. Your mind can be in different places when you are silent. Instead, listening includes really paying attention to what the other has to say.

When you pay attention to what someone has to say you can effectively be more compassionate towards a person and truly get to a place where you are helping them.

Last week I was having a conversation with a friend. I was talking to her about what was going on inside my head and while she was listening, I knew she was paying attention through asking questions and repeating some things that I had mentioned in the conversation.

It was a time where she could give compassion and I could receive it. I knew that she truly was having compassion for me because of her listening.

Make It Cooperative

When you are talking with someone, you don’t have to just sit and stay silent. As I mentioned before, you can ask questions, and better get to know what is really going on.

You never know if someone is going through something hard and by asking questions about what is going on and helping the person through it, you are not only being a good listener but you are making it so the other person isn’t just talking. You’re giving quality content to whomever you are talking to and it can help.

While talking with my friend, she didn’t just listen, she cooperated in the conversation and helped me to get over what was bothering me.

Understand What’s Going On

Through cooperation and engagement, you can come to understand what someone is going through and better have compassion for them.

You can ask questions and try to cooperate and not understand a single thing of what they are saying. With true listening and better understanding, you can better help anyone.

Sometimes you will just have to listen and not cooperate but you will always have to try to understand. It isn’t always easy to know what someone is going through but with patience and time, you can better help someone to feel better about anything or better have compassion.

Life can be hard and it isn’t always easy to feel compassionate to people. There will be days when you just want to focus on yourself and nobody else. I challenge you to try to listen to anyone who wants to talk and see how compassionate you can be through listening. I know that I will at least try to think more about what I can do to be a better listener.