The Power of Listening and How to Learn How to Use it to Your Advantage

By Dr. Dennis Maness, HealthWalk™MindSoul Division

Everyone can hear, few know how to listen. There are times we need to listen to not only the words but listen to the way in which words are being said. We can take a simple sentence such as “He didn’t hit his nose.” This sentence can be interpreted five different ways, depending on where you place the emphasis. Now imagine, your best friend tells you “He didn’t hit his nose” and you only heard the statement. You probably misinterpreted what your friend had to say.

Listening is an art; a learned art form. We teach this in our ADHD and Productivity programs here at HealthWalk with great results.

In order to listen, we have to know what and who we are listening to. Are you listening to a person or are you reading? Are you listening to an authority or the village idiot? Next, we realize we are listening to words that are either spoken or read. Every word has a single meaning. That single meaning combined with other adjectives, verbs, nouns, conjunctions become a single meaningful statement. Every word has a direction. The direction combines with the meaning of the combined words. Now, we realize listening requires attention.

Whether you are listening to an authority or reading, the principles of listening remain the same.

When you have something important to say to another person, would you want to talk at them or communicate with them? When given the choice to talk to someone or communicate with someone, of course you want to communicate. Talking is an exchange of words; communications is an exchange of thoughts. Don't lose me on this one, remember, organized words lead to a meaning that is understandable and that makes sense to the person you are communicating with or the reader of your words.

When words impact your brain, they arrive at the dictionary in your brain so the words can be identified and the meaning in that grouping of words can be interpreted to its particular message. When a meaningful and understandable group of words hit your brain, they enter as a thought and you are able to map or link them to memory chains.

Communication encapsulates the words into a meaningful thought the receiver understands. I want to teach you to listen or read in groups of thoughts, not words.

Did you know you can see more words per second than you can hear? That is a fact you can take to the library! A great writer can make words come alive on a page, and before we know it we are vacuumed into the story and are reading two or three times our average speed. Unfortunately, far too few textbooks, informational and educational material are written with such passion, so we return to our old habits of reading from word to word.

Too many people read slowly because they are trying to read with their ears or for many, they feel the need to restate what the author is saying. We can only hear about 250 words a minute. An average communications reader can see up to six pages or 2400 words in a minute. It is only when we communicate with the story that we are able to fly through the pages with comprehension and retention.

Reading in thoughts is a system of absorbing groups of words at a time as you scan a page. We have developed an exercise which you can do at our website www.healthwalk.com. (On our home page “HealthWalk’s Think Faster Game”).

Listening is a developed skill. It is learning to tune out surrounding noises; it is learning to tune out surrounding movement and above all to tune out multiple competing thoughts.

Words have a life of their own. When spoken, words can evoke emotions such as anger, fear and can cause hurt and pain; words can affect ones self esteem, motivation and productivity.

Unfortunately, we have programmed ourselves to listen to negative words more so than positive words, to listen to negative stimuli versus positive stimuli. Psychologically, we have entrained our brains to coast; to function in neutral, allowing our brains to go with the flow. Far too many will work twice as hard to find the easier solution – not necessarily the best solution which may work to their detriment.

At HealthWalk, we teach you to develop this skill of brain management. With MindSoul Brain Technology Neuro-Sound therapy we non-invasively map your brain frequencies to determine the current condition. Then we provide the protocols which help balance your brain frequencies. After only a few sessions, you will have learned how to manage your brain instead of your brain managing you. We teach you to lower anxiety, increase mood and handle the tough times. We teach you to accept positive stimuli and manage the negative stimuli.

We teach you to listen; not just hear. We teach you to use your whole brain to apply your new knowledge to access memory, lower anxiety and how to stay well. Our goal is to entrain your brain and teach you to manage it long after you have left our office.

Call us today at 760-929-1520 to schedule your appointment for HealthWalk’s MindSoul Brain Technology Neuro-Sound Stimulation Therapy. You and your brain will be glad you did – and so will all the people that you listen to.