How often do we genuinely stop, and then without thinking what we are going to say next, give 100% of our focus to the person who is speaking?
Then, how often do we pause for a moment, to digest what they have said, before replying?
Do we only hear what we think they are going to say? Simply because of the label society has put on that person. Or because we are familiar with that person and think we know everything about them.
Listening is hard, as it requires an open mind. It requires a moment of switching ourselves ‘off’.
Having an open mind, in a world that prepares us to comply with the accepted wisdom/voice of the industrialised and homogenised, has become hard.
If we all listened to what people really say, not what we are conditioned to think they say, then the world would be a different place.
If we all paused, removed the judgement and thought a bit more about what they had actually said, then the world would be a better place.
Philip Dodson 