Listening is disappearing in a cacophony of sound. The act of listening is no longer an active practice for many of us, because we’re too busy filtering those sounds that we don’t want to hear. But once the filter engages, how much information have we lost and how much less has our life become?
Most of our social media channels allow us to “friend” one another, or even to “follow”, but the button is a toggle switch that can be turned on and off when we decide that we’ve enough of that person. Of course, choice is important but thought behind the choice should be more important. Some people are so invested in the numbers game, that they freak when they lose even one. It’s like someone slapped them in the face. And in a way, that’s exactly what you do when you turn the button off and stop listening to the person that you first chose yourself.
Julian Treasure’s Ted Talks video has a pretty powerful message of how much fuller our world would be if we all chose to actively listen to our surroundings. Because we might just find that one thing that’s been missing that just made our day a little brighter, and our actions a little kinder.
So go out there and listen to what you’ve been missing. It’s a big world with lots to hear, lots to learn, and lots to inspire.
