Dear Better Endings readers:
For today I have found two insightful web descriptions of resources about Mindful Communication. I re-blog them here for your interest, since Mindfulness in Communication is the principle of Better Endings we are focussing on this week. Good reading to you! – Linda
Mindful Listening for Parents: The Best Lesson You Can Teach Your Child, by Rebecca Shafir
Ask any parent what they wish their children would do better, and the most likely reply is “To listen!” Ask the children what they wish parents would do better, and the reply is exactly the same – “To listen!”
Unfortunately, better listening isn’t usually taught in school. So it’s up to parents to set the foundation for listening at home… and it’s never too late.
This talk highlights the importance of listening for everyday communication and family relationships, including:
- The listening challenges we face in the 21st century and what we can expect in the future as “technocreep” further infiltrates society
- Listening myths – and the truth about listening
- The four characteristics of mindful listening, and how it changes relationships
- How the brain listens – the neurophysiology of hearing and listening in simple terms, and what we know about gender listening differences
- Barriers to listening and how to transcend them
- The four most common listening stoppers and how to listen under stress
- Hearing it, but not “getting it”: how to spot an auditory processing problem and what you can do about it
Better listening starts with parents! This talk is practical and enlightening and includes time for questions and answers.
http://www.mindfulcommunication.com/talks-workshops.htm#Mindful Listening for Parents
Rebecca Shafir
Mindful Communication
61 Turkey Hill Road
West Newbury, MA 01985
Tel: (978) 255-1817
Fax: (978) 255-1838
Email: rebeccashafir@att.net
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[about the book:] The Five Keys to Mindful Communication–Using Deep Listening and Mindful Speech to Strengthen Relationships, Heal Conflicts, and Accomplish Your Goals, by Susan Gillis Chapman
Good communication is essential to any healthy relationship, whether it’s between spouses, family members, friends, or co-workers, and mindfulness—the practice of nonjudgmental awareness—can help us communicate more effectively and meaningfully with others in our personal and professional lives. Here, Susan Chapman, a psychotherapist and long-time Buddhist practitioner, explains how the practice of mindfulness awareness can change the way we speak and listen, enhance our relationships, and help us achieve our goals.
Chapman highlights five key elements of mindful communication—silence, mirroring, encouraging, discerning, and responding—that make it possible for us to listen more deeply to others and to develop greater clarity and confidence about how to respond. Other topics include
- identifying your communication patterns and habits;
- uncovering the hidden fears that often sabotage communication;
- staying open in the midst of difficult conversations so that we can respond wisely and skillfully;
- and learning how mindful communication can help us to become more truthful, compassionate, and flexible in our relationships.
The book: The Five Keys to Mindful Communication
Using Deep Listening and Mindful Speech to Strengthen Relationships, Heal Conflicts, and Accomplish Your Goals
by Susan Gillis Chapman $15.95 Paperback
AVAILABLE http://www.shambhala.com/the-five-keys-to-mindful-communication.html
Better Endings 