People who know me know that one of my favourite mantra’s is communicate, communicate and keep communicating. This is the thing, I believe, that keeps all our relationships in good health.
I am going to direct you to a TED Talk a little later. I want you to listen to a particular talk given by a Scots woman called Evelyn Glennie. She is a world famous percussionist and has been deaf since she was 12. The talk is about 32 minutes long and I really recommend downloading it when you have a bit of time.
But what caught my attention was firstly her great use of music as a medium to demonstrate how to listen, but also her wisdom on how we should communicate. It certainly isn’t rocket science but it sure is good to be reminded.
She talks of testing our listening skills constantly – being focused so that we get everything we can out of an interaction. About how we should give time to listening – sometimes the chemistry might not be quite right , but give it a bit of time. We need to connect with sounds – how much better it is to be in a concert hall and not only hear the music, but feel it as well; take in the performers, audience, conductor and everything involved with the performance.
She also talks about how much emotional baggage we take with us into an interaction or concert hall - Simply because someone might have said they didn’t enjoy the performance doesn’t mean we won’t enjoy it. How we listen to things is hugely important (open mind!) and that we should try not to be so judgemental in our relationships.
Evelyn is amazing, a great speaker and great percussionist. My interpretation of what she said is:
Face to face is the cherry on the top for communicating, for relationships and making sure you are on the same wave length – you get to see everything about the other person - just remember to stay focused on them! Email and text messages just don’t cut it. Have an open mind – just because someone doesn’t like something (because of their own baggage) doesn’t mean you can’t hear/listen on your own terms. Sometimes you need to give things a bit of time – give a bit of time to the person/music for the chemistry to work. Listen very hard to what is being said. Listen and feel – let others fill the space with their sound.
The link to the talk is: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html
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