Headspace Studio.

Hi everyone. I'm Matt Abraham's, your guest host for the week. Welcome to Radio Headspace.

This week is all about mindful communication.

One of the most transformative shifts we can make is focusing less on what we say

and more on how we listen to what others say.

Today we'll explore why listening is often harder than it seems,

how it impacts our relationships,

and how mindful presence can help us truly hear others, connect to others, and build lasting relationships.

Many of us don't listen as well as we could.

There are many barriers to listening.

They all happen to start with the letter P. There's physical noise. Sometimes

it's hard to listen just because the environment we're in is loud. Another barrier to listening

is physiological. What's going on in our bodies? If you're tired, if you're hungry, if you're

nervous, it's really hard

to demonstrate the focusing required for listening.

And finally, there's psychological challenges and barriers that get in the way of listening.

A lot of us are rehearsing what we want to say next.

We're judging, we're evaluating, we're connecting ideas.

Listening is definitely a skill that we can all develop. Believe me, my wife encourages me all the time to keep developing my listening skills.

We learn listening by observing others and see what works, and we also learn listening by seeing

how people respond to us. It's not innate. We can all learn to listen better. To be a better

listener, there are several things you can do. I like to teach my students how to ace their

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