100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017. Day #8: Listening

100 Days Gratitude Challenge 2017
Day #8: Listening
Good morning! Today’s gratitude is in honour of those who listen. The biggest fights between people can be solved if each just listened to the other’s point of view without jumping to conclusions or judgments. Don’t you agree?
My wife gets most upset with me if I don’t hear fully what she has to say. When I give her a full hearing without interrupting or offering suggestions her pressure goes down, she feels relieved and everything becomes hunky-dory at home. If everything is hunky-dory at home, then life itself seems easier and we can go about our work without a shadow hovering over our head.
At work, if the employer listens to their employee fully, the employee feels wanted, valued and cared for so they give a better output with minimal supervision. If the employee listens to their employer fully, then the work gets done quicker and to the requirement that is needed by the company.
Listening is a valuable quality that needs to be inculcated in people nowadays because of the explosion of stimuli in our environment. We are hounded by the ping of our mobiles, the ring of the telephone, the ting of our computer, the noise on the TV, the voices in the cubicles around us, the neon lights, the billboards and signages, the To Do lists and the reminders that we have all around us that we can seldom listen to our own inner voice let alone the voice of the person in front of us.
We need to step back and cancel all these interruptions and give full attention to the person in front of us. The others can wait. Anytime I take up the mobile, computer or TV I can view whatever messages that clamoured for my attention while I was listening to the person in front of me. So why should I interrupt that person’s time and energy while they are directed at me. Even if that person was angry when he or she was talking to me, eventually they will cool down, see sense and connect with you as a person with your own viewpoints and opinions. You can find the middle ground and build a relationship together.
No one is born in this earth yet, just to make life miserable for you. He or she will value you once you value them and understand their needs and find ways to accommodate them in your life.
Life finds a way to give you happiness if you give it a chance. Listen to every single person who is taking time to talk to you directly today. You are just listening. You need not internalise their negativity if any. You are just allowing them time to vent so they can find their goodness again and connect with your goodness within you so your life can become a jugalbandhi (duet)again.
I thank all those who listened to me before. They gave me the opportunity to unburden myself.


I hope you find people who listen to you too. But for that to happen, you need to listen to them first, fully. Givers Gain!

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