The Lost Art of Listening

I am reading a mentoring book entitled, 'Woman to Woman' written by Edna Ellison and Tricia Scribner. This is what they say about 'The Lost Art of Listening.'

"Why listen? It's good for you as well as your merea. (The person you are mentoring)
One study showed that during talking, blood pressure increases slightly, as compared with the blood pressure while being quiet. Interestingly, during listening, blood pressure drops significantly, not only below readings taken during talking, but also below the blood pressure recorded during quiet times. So listen and lower your blood pressure!"

"As for the benefits to your merea, paying close attention to her verbal and nonverbal messages affirms her as a person of value. Your listening also gives her time to become aware of what she is thinking and feeling."

"If listening is so valuable, why don't we do it more and better? Listening is often misunderstood. Often we think of it as being synonymous with hearing. It isn't. We also tend to think of listening as dry, boring, and passive. On the contrary, listening is hard work. Proactive listening requires you to choose consciously to focus on and seek to understand the meaning of the internal experience your merea is expressing verbally."

They listed several reasons why we don't listen well and encouraged us to work on the things that distract us from listening. They are:

"I'm thinking of what to say next."
"I'm busy evaluating the rightness or wrongness of what is being said."
"I am uncomfortable with silence; I tend to fill in the blank spots."
"I am sometimes to tired to focus."
"It's hard to pay attention (this could range from true attention deficit problems to simply being distracted about matters of everyday life)."
"If I don't like the subject matter, I just tune out."

So, it looks like active listening is good for everyone involved!
Hmm...God's blood pressure must be really low.