When the goal in conversation is to clearly perceive the other person and establish a connection with them, active listening becomes natural.

The difference between hearing and listening is huge. To hear is involuntary, we can be on the street, alone, absorbed in our thoughts, and still, we hear sounds and words that reach us without us having to make any effort to make it happen. It requires no effort, understanding or interpretation.

Listening, in turn, implies interpreting the meaning, understanding what we have been told. There is no conversation if we are not listening. There are only words that fly into the air without making a whole, without being organized into an idea, without gaining any meaning or dimension.

“We have two ears and one mouth, we must hear twice as much as we speak.”

And how many times does the listening not happen?

If they look good, every day. At home, at work, at the cafe. How many times do we feel that they don't listen to us?

Speaking and listening occur at the same time, each participant in the conversation is both speaker and listener. It's not that complex, being born with a mouth and ears, we can do both functions.

However, the quality of a conversation depends more on the quality of listening than on the quality of speech.

“It is in listening that we perceive the other's point of view and find commonalities.”

Somehow, when we listen, we show that we are attentive, that what the other person is saying interests us, shows that we are receptive to the other's ideas. These inputs result in a much more harmonious conversation between the speaker and the listener.

We should know when is the right time to stop sending and start receiving. To become better communicators, we must try to develop, at all costs, the art of knowing how to listen.

The common man speaks, the wise man listens, the fool argues

Chinese proverb