When do you engage in mindless vs. mindful listening? What tips can you provide to help someone be more mindful?
"Mindless Listening occurs when we react to others messages automatically and routinely without much mental investment." Even though I am guilty in engaging in mindless listening when my mother tells me to attend church with her on a Sunday morning. However, when the pastor starts preaching, I automatically sometimes zone out and my mind gets distracted. On the hand, when it comes to mindful listening for example, I dislike math however in my math class I give the professor all my careful and thoughtful attention to gain as much knowledge to pass the class with a good grade. One simple and effective tip to be more mindful is to give yourself time, taking a deep breath will clear your mind. Another tip is to mediate, meditation is a great way of learning how to focus on the moment.
Interrupting a conversation with improper body language or inappropriate words will have a negative impact in effective communication. Some tips to help you avoid this barrier is listen without interrupting while the other person is speaking. If you seek to clarify something, use appropriate body language such as raising your hand or ask politely for more details (like "I am sorry to interrupt you..."). Another poor habit is excessive talking, talking more than necessary is a barrier to effective communication. People hesitate to interact with a person who talks excessively without listening to them and they may also get bored. However, there are few tips to overcome this barrier such as thinking before you speak, and don't speak if you have nothing important to contribute. And most importantly, avoid interrupting when the other person is speaking.
Last night while I was working out with my friend we ran into a guy who was performing an exercise in an incorrect form, so my friend went up to the guy to give him an advice to better his form yet, the person took it wrong and felt insulted. In fact, he used defensive listening. Analytical listening from the receiver would have been his best choice as he would get and understand the critique from a different perspective.
Normally, when I interact with some people I know they would talk excessively, I tend to use pseudo listening. I make them feel like I am actually listening to them when in reality I am just hearing what they are saying. “Remembering response” is what I need to use more to show the other party that I have gave them my full attention.
