What Would Happen If…?

No easy task

 

When someone is angry, there is this instinctive impulse to pull away — ‘I don’t want to hear it. Let me reject that.’ And it is just the question: What if you didn’t do that? What if you just stayed and opened yourself up to it? What would happen?

That’s psychotherapist Avi Klein.

When people ask, ‘What do we do? How do we make it better? How do we do it differently?’ Very often, my answer comes down to ‘Listen to the people around you. Be curious about what they’re angry about. And then, when you ask, when you seek out their answers, listen to them. Take them on. Consider them. Give them political weight. Give them intellectual weight. Imagine that the anger around you is a valid anger, as your anger is.’”

And that’s journalist Rebecca Traister.

Both are guests of Krista Tippet’s podcast ON BEING, and you can listen to the rest of what they have to say about really hearing each other (or read a transcript if you prefer) HERE.

We all need to practice really listening more.

Less yelling at; more listening to…

Let’s try.