Sounds familiar? Ever heard yourself say this? You’re not alone. Thousands of people are crying this out. Yet somehow they don’t get the help they need. They just don’t come upon someone close to them and say this. Even if they have best friends, they just don’t blurt it out. Like most people, they don’t get help they need because they don’t ask.
BUT HOW MANY OF US ASK SOMEONE TO LISTEN? Some of us do, but usually people don’t. People don’t ask because they don’t want to appear helpless and desperate. They don’t know who’s going to listen, if ever someone is going to listen. They expect their best friends to come to them and ask if they’re okay, to notice that something’s not right, to care and bother asking. BUT SAD THING IS THEY DON’T.
Often times, people around them are busy trying to fix their own lives. They have their own burdens to deal with, school stuff, and extra-curricular activities killing them. They’re busy trying to make the most out of life(but usually don't get the life they want). They’re HURTING TOO. They also need help, and they also expect people who know them well to listen to their concerns, including those who deep inside are crying out for help.
In short, EVERYONE IS DYING TO BE HEARD. It’s not that they’re shouting and no one is listening, it is that they’re longing for someone to care. Every person longs to be understood, comforted and lifted from burdens. People yearn for people to listen to them, and to understand them not only through the words they speak, but also through their body language and tone of voice, sensitive to what they are really saying.
But we ourselves do not seek to understand others.
We think we know it all (too well). We think we understand, but fact is we don’t. We don’t because we do not listen. We don’t because we’re occupied with out own problems, blinded by our own perceptions, and deafened by our own judgments. WE DON’T LISTEN.
We’ve had much similar cases, tons of friends sharing the same thing, speaking of the same problem, and we think we know the story. We think we know the problem, but we don’t. WE DON’T UNDERSTAND. WE NEED TO LISTEN. This poem from a book perfectly illustrates what I’m trying to say.
So PLEASE, LISTEN!
BUT HOW MANY OF US ASK SOMEONE TO LISTEN? Some of us do, but usually people don’t. People don’t ask because they don’t want to appear helpless and desperate. They don’t know who’s going to listen, if ever someone is going to listen. They expect their best friends to come to them and ask if they’re okay, to notice that something’s not right, to care and bother asking. BUT SAD THING IS THEY DON’T.
Often times, people around them are busy trying to fix their own lives. They have their own burdens to deal with, school stuff, and extra-curricular activities killing them. They’re busy trying to make the most out of life(but usually don't get the life they want). They’re HURTING TOO. They also need help, and they also expect people who know them well to listen to their concerns, including those who deep inside are crying out for help.
In short, EVERYONE IS DYING TO BE HEARD. It’s not that they’re shouting and no one is listening, it is that they’re longing for someone to care. Every person longs to be understood, comforted and lifted from burdens. People yearn for people to listen to them, and to understand them not only through the words they speak, but also through their body language and tone of voice, sensitive to what they are really saying.
But we ourselves do not seek to understand others.
We think we know it all (too well). We think we understand, but fact is we don’t. We don’t because we do not listen. We don’t because we’re occupied with out own problems, blinded by our own perceptions, and deafened by our own judgments. WE DON’T LISTEN.
We’ve had much similar cases, tons of friends sharing the same thing, speaking of the same problem, and we think we know the story. We think we know the problem, but we don’t. WE DON’T UNDERSTAND. WE NEED TO LISTEN. This poem from a book perfectly illustrates what I’m trying to say.
PLEASE 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 to me
and you begin telling 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 something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as it may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don’t talk or do – just hear me
