The 7 most important questions about listening and speaking with empathy

Our first reaction to most of the statements which we hear from other people is an immediate evaluation or judgement, rather than an understanding of it. ‘That’s right’, or ‘That’s stupid’, or ‘That’s unreasonable’, or ‘That’s correct’. Very rarely do we permit ourselves to understand precisely what the meaning of his statement is to him.” – Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person

Empathy is paying full attention to what is going on in someone else’s mind.  The difficulty we all have with this is that we are usually distracted by what is going on in our own mind.  To pay attention to someone else we must first find a way to flick the switch – to divert our attention from the noise in our own minds, to give ourselves permission to set aside for a while our own sensations, memories, opinions, prejudices, thoughts and feelings, so that we can tune in to what is going on in their mind.

If you want to train yourself to pay more generous attention to others, how can you do it?  Below you can find some frequently asked questions about how to listen and talk to someone with empathy. Take a look!