Listening is a way we L🥰VE

Truly Hearing Is Transformative

Distractions are everywhere these days, and our ability to genuinely listen often suffers as a result. Whether it’s being glued to a screen, stressing over life’s big responsibilities, or feeling overwhelmed by global challenges, it’s easy to drift into shallow listening.

Even when we think we’re fully present, chances are we aren’t really listening. Instead of seeking to understand, we’re often waiting for our turn to speak or making assumptions about what we hear.

Longing for Deeper Love, Support, and Connection?

Embrace Radical Listening.
Try these 3 Allowing.Love™ principles to practice Radical Listening:

• Listen to understand: Focus solely on understanding the other person’s perspective.
• Listen to feel: Immerse yourself in their emotions and truly sense what they’re expressing.
• Listen to experience: Step into their world. Let go of your own framework and fully engage with theirs.

Compassion Is the Bridge Our World Needs 🌍

Radical listening isn’t just a relationship game-changer—it’s a crucial skill for addressing societal and political divides. In today’s increasingly polarized world, we need solutions that foster connection and empathy.

Kathryn Thomson, a leadership coach with LeadershipMind Consulting, highlights Radical Listening as a vital tool. Grounded in neuroscience and developmental psychology, it not only enhances compassion and understanding but also helps rewire the brain for deeper connection.

From healing fractured relationships and reducing isolation to bridging social divides, Radical Listening has the potential to transform lives—and maybe even the world.

Every time I see a video of Ellie, my heart first breaks…again, and then her real invisible essence can sneak into my heart just a little more. She taught me how to listen. She taught me so much. And she’s still teaching me how to listen – but this time, it’s to that essence within me.

A Sacred Workout for Radical Listening👂

Growing our sacred muscles for active, compassionate listening

Let’s learn how to implement the 3 keys of Allowing.Love™ Radical Listening as an every day skill and area of growth!

1. The first, and most important aspect of radical listening, is to keep in mind that the point of this conversation is for Connection, not for fixing, solving, or even thinking. Care more about experiencing a deep emotional connection and understanding who they are as a person, more than anything else.
2. In order to be able to Listen to Understand it’s valuable to remember:
   1. Humans are different. It’s truly impossible to ever fully understand how different we are. But it’s powerful to remember that we have been raised differently, we have different strengths and weaknesses, we have different dreams and hurts in our hearts.
   2. Humans are similar. We all want the same thing, no matter who we are, or where we’re from. We want to be loved, respected, and happy.
   3. So lean into the experiences you share. Don’t get stuck and focus on your differences. Focus on what unites you.
3. Next, consider these tips for being able to authentically Feel what you are listening to:
   1. You’re going to have to let go of ‘your world’ in order to empathetically feel and experience ‘their world’. So let go of your reference points, assumptions, and truly try to imagine and experience what it feels like in their shoes.
   2. Be vulnerable. It’s ok to feel, to be moved, to have energy come up inside of you.
4. Finally, in order to Listen to Experience someone else, this means letting go of your ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, and genuinely being open to simply experiencing their world as it is.
   1. Let go of trying to change, fix or solve anything for them.
   2. Let go of any agenda or outcome you’d like for the conversation, beyond experiencing a deeper, more heartfelt connection with this person.