Build a Better Brain by Consciously Listening

The listening and sound expert Julian Treasure has an excellent 8 minute TED Talk video on why we are losing our ability to listen and what to do about it.  Of special interest to readers of the Next Brain Blog are the five techniques he offers to improve your ability to listen consciously.  These include:

  1. Actively listen to others by practicing RASA or receive, appreciate, summarize and ask questions.
  2. Enjoy 3 minutes of silence or quiet per day to help reset or re-calibrate your listening.
  3. Count the channels or sources of sound in a noisy environment. For example, walking down a city street you receive sound from a dozen sources including car horns, nearby conversation,  buses and so on.
  4. Change your listen position by adjusting the filters that shape how you hear including for example, expectations and empathy.
  5. Listen to the hidden choir around you. This involves savoring ordinary sounds, for example hearing the symphony in your tumble dryer.

These five techniques are simple but practicing them will with time transform how you consciously listen. Hearing the world is a key to improved cognitive performance.

Interested to hear from readers that practice specific techniques of conscious listening. What techniques do you use? What have you heard that the rest of have not?