Day 23

Listen

Being heard

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Good listening is a true act of love and compassion. Letting someone feel heard is vital to their sense of self and wellbeing. But good listening is a real art. It’s a form of spiritual hospitality, by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully.

In your journal today, write down five things that you heard today – they could from one of your children, a colleague or someone you spoke to briefly in a shop – and then try to see what you really heard in their words, and what you also might have missed.