Does Silence Have A Purpose?

In a world of iPhones, video blogs, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace -- all designed to get information to you f-a-s-t -- I think it's safe to say that we are a busy and noisy society. Plus, we are a very communicative society; we like to talk! So have you ever noticed how irritating silence can be? Or how much it bothers us when no one is talking? Or when we don't get that person on the phone immediately? Or ______ -- you just fill in the blank! It all boils down to noise. We like noise.

Is there a purpose in silence? I think so. In fact, I believe that learning to be silent is a prerequisite for learning how to listen. Because we like noise and we like to make noise, oftentimes we just flat out don't listen. To help us reframe our thoughts on silence, I offer you this tip: Cease to think of silence as irritating and start to think of silence as active listening.

Active listening defined is learning to tune in to the person speaking. An even broader definition is learning to tune in to our environment which may or may not include a person. Make a note of the five steps of active listening:

1. Ask yourself what is the real content here?
2. Ask yourself what is the real intent here?
3. Pay attention to the nonverbal cues of the person you're listening to.
4. Pay attention to your own nonverbal cues -- what vibes are you sending off?
5. Listen just to listen -- discard judgments and be emphathetic

When we learn to listen actively utilizing the five steps we will discover that silence does, indeed, have a purpose!

Until next post,

Dr. Angela aka "The Purpose Professor"
http://www.lifeonpurposellc.com"Life with no purpose is no life at all!"