The 8 Step Listening Process
The School of Good Listening has developed a useful framework that promotes healing from the inside out. This Eight-Step Listening Process is summarised below.
The Listening Process is a sequence of steps in healing that first takes you from building inner awareness and self-regulation, to cultivating greater interpersonal presence and connection, and, finally, to achieving constructive dialogue that can bridge differences.
It can be broken down into these eight steps:
- Attention
‘Like it or not, this moment is all we really have to work with.’ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Attention and self-observation are a major focus of our work. We believe that what you focus on creates your experience and that choosing your focus wisely is the key to a good life. Through paying close attention to our thoughts, feelings, and our bodies in the present moment, we can learn a lot about what aspects of our experience are within our control and open to change. We are also better able to identify which parts of our experience truly belong to the present moment and which parts are shaped by the past. Through short rituals of listening to ourselves regularly, we build a new awareness that transforms us.
2. Acceptance and Non-Judgment
‘Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are.’ Jon Kabat-Zinn
As we become more attentive to what is going on within us, we notice an endless stream of thoughts around liking and disliking aspects of our experience. An overly judging mind can interfere with seeing things as they actually are.
Many of us can identify a critical inner voice that judges our own thoughts, feelings, and reactions far more harshly than we would judge those of others. Harsh self-judgement can prevent us from seeing our own fundamental worth and block us from showing up in the world in a more authentic and peaceful way.
When we develop a more accepting and non-judging orientation, we can act with more clarity and in a more ethical manner, towards others but also towards ourselves. We usually become more balanced in our thinking and effective in what we do when we accept that our minds are constantly engaged in a stream of liking and disliking.
Accepting and not judging ourselves or how our minds work allows us to make healthy choices and mobilise our true potential.