A Heart To Listen: Becoming A Listening Person In A Noisy Mind

The article I have chosen to review is the chapter “To Unlock the Door” from the book “A Heart to Listen: Becoming a Listening Person in a Noisy World” by Michael Mitton. The article deals with the importance of listening and the barriers we raise which affect our ability to listen. The article then goes on to outline how we can learn to listen like Jesus did and how we can identify those areas which might be interfering with our ability to be a great listener. Finally, in my own personal reflection, I have outlined what I found helpful from the article and ways I could apply these concepts in the context of the people I care for.

The first point Mitton makes in this chapter is that we should not undervalue the importance of listening. Mitton opens this chapter of his book with a story about a girl who was planning to commit suicide but after talking with her therapist decided to change her mind because “a world in which someone was prepared to listen to another’s distress seemed to her one in which it was worthwhile to live.” Listening attentively can be distressing but this story clarifies for us the importance of being a good listener.

The first barrier is that listening can be difficult and leave us feeling inadequate. Very often we are unable to solve the other person’s problem and hence we seek to avoid the conversation by retreating to a place of safety. Mitton calls this place of safety our “ivory tower”. Mitton’s argument is that we need to learn to listen without feeling the need to fix their