The Power of Listening

Yesterday, March 29, 2015, I attended a seminar with a theme: "The Power of Listening." The speaker was Luzlin P. Elcullada, R.G.C. The seminar was held in Cebu Technological University. It was an interesting seminar. 

"The Guest Speaker"

I was able to learn the importance of listening. Listening is the ability to  precisely receive and interpret messages in the communication process. It is key to effective communication and to avoid miscommunication with each other. Most of the successful people are good listeners.  Listening to someone who has problems is a great way to ease the pain of the person feels. 

I faced a big challenge in my life. Losing a child is the most painful thing I've experienced and I think, almost all people feel the same way, too. I was so stressed and almost had a depression. I didn't experience going to a guidance counselor. Nevertheless, I'm so thankful to those people who listened to my story. Most of them gave me some advices. The speaker in this seminar said that in a guidance counseling context, giving advices  isn't not applicable. All you have to do is to listen. 

"The Attendees Listen to the Speaker Carefully"

In "listening", there are don'ts and do's to be considered. In verbal response, the don'ts include major topic jumps and discounting or subtractive response. It is important to have a parallel talk. In non-verbal response, the don'ts are sharp body shift, yawning and looking at the watch. The person must be attentive and show that s/he is interested to the individual. On the other hand, in verbal response, the do's include listening for accuracy (clarification), listening for understanding (paraphrasing and reflecting) and listening for themes (summarization). In non-verbal response, the do's are (SOFTEN):

• S - smile
• O - open posture
• F - forward lean
• T - touch (when needed)
• E - eye contact
• N - nodding of head appropriately

For me, the part which I like the most was the closing part. The speaker showed a video. It showed the importance of listening. Two ears can form a heart. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the video on Youtube. I'll just show pictures of what I've seen in the video.

"EARTH"

"HEART"

"TEAR"

"EARS"

These different illustrations are interrelated. People are living in the earth. If we form different word from the word "EARTH", we could make a word "HEART". Heart symbolizes LOVE. Meaning, we fall in love with someone else or we love our family and the people surround us. From the word HEART, we could get a word TEAR. Talking about LOVE, we can't avoid having arguments or misunderstandings with people whom we love so much. Because of that thing, we tend to cry. Nonetheless, we could ease our pain if someone would listen to us. That's why, two EARS can form a HEART. 

As a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend and as an ordinary person, I must listen to someone attentively to help him/her ease the pain s/he experiences. Thank you so much to Ma'am Melgo for letting us attend this seminar.