There is a famous quote that goes, “We do not listen to understand, we listen to reply”. This was true maybe until a few years ago. But in today’s world, we do not even listen. We are constantly distracted by the messages, tweets, mails, news that notifies us about what is happening in the world, and we forget the person standing right in front of us trying to convey something.

We speak about being positive, giving love, helping people in need.  But when it comes to showing empathy, listening to people who perhaps want to share something, we fail.

When was the last time you really listened to someone? Listened with your eyes, heart and felt and understood every word that the other person was saying, without getting distracted and by being fully there for them. We experience distractions in our daily conversations with our loved ones, at work, and even when we do mundane tasks like shopping, constantly engrossed in our digital world. How many times have you told your partner or child not to disturb you because you are watching some interesting movie? How many times have you shushed your friend when they are about to say something? Though we don’t realize this, we do this more often than we think.

Really, like what does listening serve or how do things change just by listening you may ask. The power of listening is something that can make a person change their decision to take some drastic decisions when they are going through some bad phase in life. And if you just listen, you may be able to prevent that from happening! Just listening can also help people feel better, change their attitude and help them gain a different perspective as they speak to someone who is listening to them. There have been numerous studies conducted to support the power of listening which corroborates this fact.

The least we can do to help a person trying to say something, is listen. I have started doing this, how about you?