The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said that God gave us two ears and one mouth, so that we would listen twice as much as we speak. One way we grow in our determination to connect is by listening. This means we take time to listen to the world around us — even to orange frogs. It means we listen to other people too. The well-known psychiatrist Karl Menninger believed that the experience of not being listened to actually made people unwell. Conversely, the experience of being listened to made them well again.

Melannie Svoboda, Traits of a Healthy Spirituality