Mindful Listening

There is an art to listening; and as Julia Wood states about listening, “We try to understand not just content but also the person speaking” (Wood 166). In essence, the goal of listening is to gasp the message, meaning and feelings of the person talking. Therefore, there are listening behaviors and listening styles that can either enhance or impede this process and flow of communication. To this point, observations have been made of two separate conversations in which listening behaviors and styles were seen as a lesson in what type of behaviors and styles are helpful and which are not. Frist of all, a conversation took place on Halloween in which two men were discussing their latest hunting escapades. The setting was in a home, where several families had gathered for the festivities. Little children were running around, music was playing, the World Series was on the television and multiple conversations were taking place around the living room. The two men sat side by side, yet turned their heads to face on another whenever they spoke. This points out the benefits of attentive postures in listening (Wood 167). What is more, as one man said, “It was the biggest black tail I had seen in years,” the other man asked him to elaborate about other deer he had seen in the past. In addition, there was a bit of “paraphrasing” in the conversation as one would restate what the
Through paraphrasing and attentive postures people can understand one another better. However, pseudolistening and literal listening impede many people in being able to understand the deeper meanings of what is being communicated. Therefore, mindfulness is ever important in a world of misunderstanding and miscommunications. However, focus and intention can remedy many people’s ability to create deeper relationships with