18 JULY - INTERNATIONAL NELSON MANDELA DAY & WORLD LISTENING DAY


July 18 has been observed as International Nelson Mandela Day and World Listening Day since 2010, to commemorate the birthdays of former President of South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, and Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer, one of the founders of the movement of Acoustic Ecology that envisages to end noise pollution and rein in environmental harmony...

A man of strength, integrity and principles, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa, from 1994 to 1999...

His two hundred and fifty plus awards included the “1993 Nobel Peace” Prize, the Medal of Freedom, and the Bharat Ratna...

He was 95 when he breathed his last on December 5th December 2013, in Johannesburg...🙏🙏🌹💐
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Though not impossible, it is difficult for a person to live in solitude. All of us require and desire conversation, in some form or the other, in our daily lives. It is entirely in our hands to make them memorable, or otherwise...

Listening is a desired skill required almost everywhere, be it home, family, friends, workplace or society. Like often said about the subtle difference between sight and vision, so would I say about hearing and a thoughtful response...

Has listening become a withered art? It appears as though most people have forgotten how to listen, to one another or self. It is for all to observe in everything that we call society, be it education, workplace, recreation, sports, politics, and why, even in our lives too. Far too often we hear to reply, retort, sometimes rhetorical too, isn’t that so?...

It is said that though the average human speech rate is around 100 words a minute, the brain has the capacity to compute words much faster. Thus, when we listen to spoken words, we have to train our brain to decelerate, which gives us a time-interval for our own thoughts. It is precisely how we manage - or mismanage - this time-interval that determines our being a good or a bad listener...

Real listening requires us to be relaxed with an open mind, and to allow our attention to move in accordance with what is being spoken. It means to consciously restrain ourselves from listening to our spontaneous thoughts, and concentrate on the speaker in front of you...

Listening to your breathing, to your thoughts, to yourself when you speak, to the various natural sounds in the environment including silence, without being judgemental, are few methods to reinforce the faculty of listening...

So, in the final analysis, let us not let 'lending a patient ear' be relegated to just the books. If you want yourself to be heard when you speak, first ensure that you yourself are a good listener... 🙂

🙏🙏

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