Gratitude enhances our curiosity and active listening
Are you a curious person, interested in the events and situations going on around you? When we think of curiosity, we often view it in a negative way; being nosey and poking your nose into things that are none of your business!
Curiosity can be a positive thing though. It helps us create a positive work environment; it helps us to be more empathetic which helps us build stronger relationships. It is instrumental in creating psychologically safe environments, makes us better listeners and promotes the power of gratitude.
When we live gratefully and practice deep gratitude, we will be searching for acts of kindness to be grateful for. We can use gratitude as the base of psychological safety, feeling free to be ourselves without fear of negative reprisals. Once we create such a space, we can use positive curiosity to check in on other members of our team, our friends or even our partners.
When we are curious about the wellbeing of others, we will also become better listeners, more active listeners! We won't just listen in order to plan our responses, we will be actively involved and concerned for the wellbeing of others, it will make us more empathetic and this builds stronger relationships.
Actively listening will also make us kinder, less self-centered beings, realising that it's not all about us! The more we know about something the more engaged and interested we will be. This is a great way of making these conversations easier. If the framework is already in place, we will already be having conversations about mental health and this will help us to open up about our own mental health too!
Having a genuine interest in the wellbeing of others will help us to become kinder and is a very easy way to resolve conflict! In addition, it will help us to look at our own situation and self-reflect, exploring our own consciousness. It will give us a more objective perspective on our own opinions, biases and beliefs.
Genuine curiosity and active listening not only make others feel validated, but it also has a big effect on our own emotional, environmental, spiritual, social, physical, occupational and intellectual mental health!
It also exercises our emotional intelligence muscles, which impacts our self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation, decision making and social skills!
As we see through the increased popularity of positive psychology, sometimes listening is all that is needed to help someone! The more positive channels of communication we have, the easier it will be for us to open up, expose our vulnerabilities and listen to our true voice!
If we start from a grateful position, we connect with ourselves, we open up those conversations which will help strengthen teams and relationships and make our whole world a more positive place! Even in the face of difficulty, misunderstanding, complexity, pain, and the unknown, our experiences can feel expansive rather than constricting. If we lean in and listen with curiosity, care, and compassion!
So be grateful, listen actively and the whole world will be a better place!