Active Listening Relationships

Where Is Your Mind?

It’s not always intentional, sometimes our minds drift or we get distracted by our surroundings easily. Maybe it’s not a pleasant conversation and instead of focusing on what your partner is saying and how they’re feeling, you’re working on your response in your head. Thus making the conversation about your feelings and needs instead of theirs or both of yours. Zoning out and missing important conversational details can lead to feelings of inattentiveness or even escalate to a stressful situation. 

So how do we avoid this?

Active listening is the practice of being intentional in the way we communicate with someone. Active listening promotes mutual understanding and feelings and helps the person you’re talking to feel heard. It also helps cultivate deeper conversations and communication patterns.

Active listening isn’t a skill we are all raised to practice, but it’s an important skill to have in all of our relationships. Instead of waiting for our turn to speak, we can focus on working to understand another person’s experience, emotions, and perspective. Active listening helps take the focus off of you and puts the focus on others. If practiced by all parties in a conversation, it can foster a great communication dynamic.

Active listening doesn’t just pertain to speech, it’s also important to consider the role body language plays in our communications with others. The way we sit, look at someone or stare off, slouch, etc. can make it seem like we’re uninterested or unhappy to be where we are. It’s called “active listening” for a reason, after all.

How Can You Get Better at Active Listening?

Active listening is a common struggle for couples and the skill is often learned once they’ve hit a critical point in their relationship. If you feel like you, or you and your partner, are ready to listen to each other more intentionally and lovingly, our therapists are here to help. Click here to get started.