Standing on a flat cliff in the middle of the night in the fog sounded scary, but it was more…magical. I could see the water below and the moon seemed to cast shadows, pictures of people dancing, and animals bounding towards an unseen bone. The trees stood still, no wind to make them move. The
Hearing Vs. Listening and How Replying is 2018’s Deepest Obsession
I agree with Mr. Covey, that most people don’t listen to understand, but to reply. However, I would go a bit further to say that if your heart’s intention is merely to reply from the beginning, the activity of listening is not truly present, but the activity of hearing. Hearing is when you have heard
How to Be Instantly Likable!
Stephen Covey was absolutely correct when he said that “most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”. I agree with this statement because in this digital age, almost everyone has an opinion and wants to be heard… “Listen to me!” “This is what I have to say.”
Education: The Way Out of Your Mind’s Imprisonment
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” – Victor Hugo The pursuit of knowledge through the consistent and broad engagement of one’s mind is a process that is extremely important in today’s world. Education, whether formal or informal, plays a very dynamic role in providing invaluable knowledge and skills necessary in one’s everyday
The Ache
Never have I resonated with a piece as much as I have with this excerpt and the entirety of Home. In fewer than twenty words, Shire articulates what the masses feel, what the fleeing experience and what those in-charge refuse to admit. Every stanza of Home gives me goose bumps. Just when I think it
The Mysterious Boat
I love living by the shores, for I can go to the beach anytime I want. Every time I visit the shorelines my mind magically transports to a state of quietude. It was a tiring day at school. I finished my lunch quickly and headed to the beach. “Come back soon, we are going out
The Unseen Sacrifice Of A Childless Mother
What is sacrifice you ask me. Oh, how I know so well already. Is sacrifice not but giving up desires because life circumstances are not favorable enough? I have put my unborn child on that boat to a place I’ve never been because the land I live on has become my hell. I have loved
How Martin Luther King Shaped Our Society
Martin Luther King JR. and Rosa Parks both helped change the world because they stood up for freedom and made a big impact on our civil rights. When Martin Luther King JR. said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere” he linked the historic struggle of equality and freedom for African-Americans to the struggles
Listening from the Heart
Why is it that people don’t really listen to each other? Oh, they hear one another, but not what’s lying between the lines and under the words, not the emotional content, not the things – unconsciously hidden or not – that the other is saying, not the “where is this coming from?” question we should
The Fear of Desperation
Desperation is the driving force behind almost every identifiable act of bravery, betrayal, and even the poison that corrupts the best of us. What we wouldn’t do to keep ourselves safe from the ravages of war, to keep our families from the things that creep in the darkness? Or to safeguard the little happiness we’ve
Love Yourself
Many people’s greatest fear is loneliness. After all, the human species is naturally a social one. Every day, you see friends laughing together, going to parties, and having a fun time. You might also see a couple having a romantic candlelit dinner or going bowling together. But what if something deprives a person from doing
The Sociomata
Dr. King in Birmingham jail, way back in 1963, said “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of maturity, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”. If we understood what he truly meant the world will rise up vigorously against
How To Fix Society: Learning to Listen and Understand Each Other
“Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” –Stephen R. Covey. Yes, this does happen rather frequently; unfortunately, altogether too often, most of all because conversation does not occur between people from any and all walks of life anymore. This is because everyone is so guarded and
A Key towards Opening a School to Close a Prison: Education as a Life Skill
In this changing time of globalization, education should inevitably be considered an effective process pertinent to real life; education and its organisms have gone through a phase of shift in this global age. Educational purposes and objectives, for instance, have witnessed change in teaching-learning methodologies, learning situations, purposeful thinking, and the employability of tools. For
Why Do We Listen?
“Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” This is a Stephen R. Covey quote that has my narcissistic ass feeling personally attacked. Despite my current state of butthurt, Covey has a valid point. His point is so valid that it made up an entire unit in
The intent of listening is to understand, in its purest form
I believe most people’s habit is to listen to respond rather than to listen to understand. I think there are subtle differences between both, but the outcomes can vary greatly if we are to foster healthy relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Moreover, from the perspective of personal development, listening to understand is more effective
Present day slavery in the United States of America
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” -Victor Hugo. The age of innovation is dying in the US. What once was a bastion of scientific knowledge, creative thinking, literary genius, and engineering know-how has become a desolate wasteland of group-think and nigh slave labor. What irony that a country that shed blood to
Imagine where you would be if you couldn’t read this
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison”, said Victor Hugo sometime in the 19th century. I have always been an admirer of Victor Hugo and his writings, ever since childhood. His novels “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and “Les Misérables” both fascinated and terrified me. He describes a world of contrasts – of beauty
Where Justice is Concerned
The great African-American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was once recorded as having said that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Unfortunately, we have to accept that injustice is a natural part of the world that we inhabit, given the social structures and attitudes that have been fostered by cultures, religions,
Our Actions Behind the Technology
Children are glued to these smart TVs, and teens to their phones, the adults using computers to get work done. Thus, their forebears are often left to struggle with figuring out this “new-fangled technology,” many of whom give up and decide that it is all useless, longing for the days of yore before technology had