In her first book, The Sacred Art of Listening (a Spirituality & Practice Book Award recipient in 2003), Kay Lindahl pointed out that most of us don't really know how to listen. We may spend about 45 percent of our time listening, but we are distracted, preoccupied, or forgetful about 75 percent of that time. Unfortunately, less than five percent of us have had any training in this area. As the founder of The Listening Center, the author has developed a program to help us become better at this important spiritual practice.
Lindahl is convinced that silence, presence, and openness are three ways of nurturing the art of sacred listening. In this handy paperback, she presents specific daily practices for contemplative, reflective, and heart listening. There are also exercises to increase your skills in listening in conversations and listening in groups. A Cuban proverb states: "Listening looks easy, but it's not simple. Every head is a world." This helpful resource contains plenty of tools and techniques for active listening, empathic, and relational listening.
