Improve Your Relationship By Practicing This One Simple Behavior
- lesliecochrane99
- Apr 22, 2023
- 2 min read
60 Second Read by Leslie Cochrane, LPC at CochraneCounseling.com
Home of the Wise Science - Big Heart Approach
Are you feeling like your partner is becoming distant? Or does it seem like all you two do is argue or go silent? Loss of open communication is a red flag for future problems.
What one behavior will improve your relationship immediately? Active Listening.
What is Active Listening? It sounds simple but many of us don’t do it naturally and need to learn how to be an active listener. The purpose of Active Listening is to fully understand your partner without expectations or judgments. It is vital to listen more than you speak during Active Listening, and you never interrupt your partner.
In Active Listening there’s no judgement, only inquiry. Meaning that during the listening process, there should be no name calling, no bringing up past offenses, and no arguing. Your attitude must be very open minded, and you must be willing to improve your understanding of your partner. Your main goal is to help your partner to feel that you are truly just listening to their point of view.
Example statements and questions include: “What would you like to do?”, “Why is this important to you?”, “Can you tell me more about that?”, “What do you think about that?”, “I would love to hear more about that.”, “I want to hear what you think about that.”
How can Active Listening help our relationship? Anytime we feel like someone is truly listening to us, we want to spend more time with them, and we feel more trusting of them. So Active Listening leads to trust and quality time, which are two vital parts of a healthy relationship. Also, your partner will have better overall health, physical and mental, when you truly hear them.
