Could You Listen?
When I ask you to listen to me and you start
giving me advice, you have not done what I
asked.
When I ask you to listen and you begin to
tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you
are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel
you have to do something to solve my
problem, you have failed me- strange as
that may seem.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself, you contribute to
my fear and inadequacy; but when you
accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I
feel no matter how irrational, then I can quit
trying to convince you and get down to the
business of understanding it.
Irrational feelings make sense when we
understand what’s behind them. And when
that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I
don’t need advice.
So please just listen. If you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn and I’ll listen to
you.
-Author unknown[1]
[1] Author unknown (Author is believed to be a patient with psychiatric problems. He wished to remain anonymous. He wrote it when he was an inpatient in a psychiatry hospital)
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