45 Reflection – Active Listening

This assignment has been beneficial not only to better my active listening skills in an academic setting but also throughout my personal life. Since we have practiced active listening, I have been conscious of it while I am speaking to my friends and family. I tend not to listen as well as I should be and often miss important information throughout my conversations. The main person I tested this with was my cousin because we are on the phone frequently as we are the same age give updates about us throughout the day. Recently my cousin, Salma, was talking about her frustrations with her new roommates. They are not very tidy and when she brought up her qualms, they listened and understood, but end up reverting to their old habits. I tend to give my opinion along her telling the story rather than listening to her for the full duration, but this time I chose to keep my opinions and advice until the end of the conversation. I was able to better understand her story and her frustrations fully and gave her proper advice on the situation, rather than inserting myself when I had not listened to the entire story. As I continue to grow and flourish as a student, I hope I can continuously better my active listening because it is a beneficial skill for me so I can understand and hear a full story rather than interject during the story.