Julian Treasure, the well known TED speaker talks about 5 ways to listen better in this brilliant video from TEDGlobal 2011. He warns us about losing our listening since we have so many distractions around us which kills conscious listening. Conscious listening, he says, leads to understanding.
The video brings forth many interesting ideas about listening which you should watch for yourself. Here are the five exercises he suggests to improve listening:
1. Silence: Silence of 3 minutes a day helps to reset our ears to quiet so that we can listen well.
2. The Mixer: Even in a noisy environment, try to listen to as many individual channels as you can hear and differentiate.
3. Savouring: This is about enjoying the most mundane sounds. For instance, the tumble dryer of a washing machine. We can enjoy any sound as long as we listen.
4. Listening positions: This is the most important one. Moving your listening position to what’s appropriate – active/passive or critical/sympathetic. This helps become conscious of barriers/filters to listening and play around with them.
5. RASA: It’s a Sanskrit word for juice or essence and the acronym stands for Receive, Appreciate, Summary, Ask. It summarises the process of active listening.
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You will also find these useful to improve your listening skills:
Why listening are important in our life
How to use effective listening skills in our lives