The Art Of Listening

The art of listening is to be fully present in the conversation.

I wasn’t always good at listening. My husband would probably argue that I’m crap at listening (to him) but over the years, thanks mainly to my work, I’ve become more attuned to listening to the underlying worry/problem/idea/messages which are both spoken and unspoken.

As a family doctor, I see somewhere between 30-40 patients a day. I do this 5 days a week so I talk to a lot of people and that’s just at work. However, no two consultations are ever the same. No two clinical problems, as identically matched as they could be, are ever communicated in the same way. I find this fascinating.

This morning, I’ve had an elderly patient say to me, as she walked out the door, “Especially at my age doctor, every day counts.” Of all the things we talked about during our consultation (which were very clinical), in one sentence, she left a powerful impact on me. She got me thinking about the value of now and the power of now.

I help my patients to gain optimum health. This is why I became a doctor. In return, my patients teach me about life. It’s a beautiful journey when we work In partnership and really listen to each other.