The Art of Conscious Listening

I love this TED talk given by Julian Treasure. He mentions that 60% of our communication time is spent on listening, but only 25% of that is retained. I like the 5 listening exercises he offers to help take back our listening...

1. Silence - take 3 minutes a day to recalibrate our ears to hear quiet again. 
2. Mixer - take notice to how many channels of sound we hear.
3. Savoring - enjoy the mundane sounds.
4. Listening Positions - move your listening position.
5. RASA - receive, appreciate, summarize, and ask

In addition to sharing the listening exercises, he suggests that we should teach the skill of listening in schools. By doing this we can "transform the world in one generation to a conscious listening world - a world of connection, a world of understanding and a world of peace." Imagine that if we all learned the art of conscious listening, what type of world it would be...I am thinking it would be a better one. 

"I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening."

— Larry King