Practice: Deep Listening
One of the many ways to practice deep listening is to try to be truly present with the other person. It was said that the writer Ernest Hemingway had a way of listening with such intensity that the person doing the speaking felt supremely complimented. One step is to seek to have agenda-free conversations where you are free to listen to what the other person says rather than listening while thinking about what you are going to say in response. Another practice is to make lists to assess how you listen:
Practice: Simple Changes
Author Sam Keen, reminds us that "the great metaphors from all spiritual traditions—grace, liberation, being born again, awakening from illusions—testify that it is possible to transcend the conditioning of the past and do a new thing.”
Compassion Meditation
Listen to a 13-minute guided meditation on compassion by author, translator, researcher, and Buddhist practitioner Alan Wallace.