I recently wrote about listening, really listening.  In conquering that difficult skill myself, I was amazed at how much I was missing, how much I was really not “getting”, and especially about people I thought I knew well.
With the know-it-all judgemental filter off, not only did I get to discover some wonderfully quirky aspects of friends and co-workers, I learned new ways of having fun, new reasons to laugh and new ways to care.
Listening and staying in the moment, I discovered a new game: catching them in the act of …

Much of how we behave is obviously influenced by what we think of ourselves.  Not so much in terms of our skills, likes or dislikes, but more like how we see ourselves.  As our own most critical judge, we label and categorize ourselves even as we proclaim how wrong it is to stereotype people.
“I’m not really an exercise person”, we might say, or “I have two left feet”, or in my case, “I kill all plants I come into contact with”.  Once we have labelled ourselves, it is becomes extremely …

You must have heard of the three ladies in their golden years, and their conversation while hanging out on a park bench on a balmy, breezy afternoon.  Martha: “It’s windy!”.  Cynthia: “No, it’s Thursday!”  Rose: “Me too! Let’s go get a drink!”
Martha, Cynthia and Rose had a valid reason in their aging ears for not quite understanding one another.  But what about those of us whose hearing is working perfectly well? Are we hearing what is being communicated? Are we really, truly listening?
To truly listen, you need more than working …