Listening With Your Heart

To be a good listener, we need to practice empathy; attempt to feel  
what the other person is feeling by listening with your heart and not  
your head. There are times when we all need a shoulder to cry on (as  
the saying goes) and we would like to feel understood when we "cry in  
that shoulder."
 
To be a good listener, we need to refrain from interrupting the person  
when they speak and curb the desire to say phrases such as,  
"Everything will be okay", "There are others in worse situations", "Be  
strong, crying won't solve anything", "You have to be positive." This  
makes the person in need feel lonely and misunderstood. They might  
even feel that they are weak because they don't know how to cope.
 
If we can't offer empathy or don't know what to say, we can remain  
silent and even admit that we don't know how to handle the situation,  
but always offering ourselves to be there to lend a listening ear, or  
comforting touch.