Empathic Listening

http://sfhelp.org/pop2/listen.htm This article I read talked about, "hearing with your heart." To be an effective empathic listener we need to put aside our own preferences, and needs to be able to understand, fully, what someone is trying to commnicate with us. It reminded me of that article we read about inconvenience. It may not be the easiest thing to put our own needs away for awhile. But, this is what is called selflessness. It also talks about when we even don't agree with something the speaker says how we need to not interrupt them or judge them in anyway. When someone is in distress, you're trying to help them vent their feelings. Not judge them for what they have said.This made we think of Michael J. Fox and how when he went to his coach to talk to him, the coach just told him how trivial it was, and that he shouldn't let it bother him. Empathic listening is that...listening. My goal is to try to forget myself more often, and become such a person that people will feel like they could come to me. I want to teach this to my roommate, and I'm going to see how effective of a listener I can be toward her.