Are you being listened to?
The world is so noisy.
Everyone seems to be talking all the time, sharing their opinions, impressions, ideas, complaints or solutions.
And we don’t just do it with our voices.
We post, we text, we comment (or, in my case, we write emails!).
But are you actually being heard?
Is someone on the other end listening to you?
Because that’s what ultimately matters. Behind our need to talk, to express, is our deep human need to be heard.
To be seen and acknowledged.
And, in spite of the media-driven ease with which we can communicate, I have a hunch that we are being listened to less and less.
It’s never been easier to have — or at least have the illusion — of having a platform on which you can stand and share your point of view.
One of Facebook’s early taglines was “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”
But did it, and all the other platforms that came after it, really fulfill our need for connection?
For being heard — and for being genuinely seen for who we are?
Interactions become performative, everyone conscious of the image they’re carrying. I hear younger generations are more reluctant to do stupid stuff in front of their friends for fear of being filmed and forever judged.
It reminds me of the Panopticon.
Real feelings are muted, real human energies constrained to hide behind our complex, muddy, stuttering, and unsure selves.
What we need are spaces of listening.
Spaces where we give nonjudgmental attention to another being who is yearning to share something deep within.
To allow them to get it out into the open.
To let it go.
Listening is the ultimate act of love.
Till next time,
Ben
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