Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening: A Guide to Enrich Your Relationships and Kindle Your Spiritual Life--The Listening Center Workshop [Paperback]

Kay Lindhal (Author), Kay Lindahl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

It happens at work and at home, with strangers and close friends, in heated debates and in quiet conversations--you hear someone speaking, but often you don’t truly listen.

Kay Lindahl’s highly respected workshops are attended by people from a broad range of backgrounds. Her first book, The Sacred Art of Listening, has been published to acclaim in North America, Europe, and Asia. Now she offers practical, easy-to-follow advice and exercises to enhance your capacity to listen in a spirit-filled way. Using examples from her own life and her work as a teacher of the sacred art of listening, Lindahl explores the nature and use of silence, reflection, and divine presence as foundational qualities of listening and shows you how you can apply these in your everyday life.

This valuable workshop-in-a-book examines the varied ways we are called to deep listening, including: Contemplative listening, Reflective listening, Heart listening, Listening in groups, Listening in conversations, and more.

You will find yourself inspired to discover how different your conversations will be when you stop just talking and start really listening.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is a companion volume to Lindahl's first book, The Sacred Art of Listening, which provided 40 short, distinct entry points into the realm of real listening. Here, she organizes her thinking around broader themes such as "contemplative," "reflective" and "heart" listening, three modes that she says can help us to listen deeply to the divine, ourselves and one another. Lindahl hopes that people can slowly strengthen their listening "muscles" and pull themselves back from the brink of non-communication. She explores the implications of listening to friends, family, co-workers and ourselves. Calling thoughtful attention to the myriad ways we share conversation, she delineates among the formats and intentions of debates, arguments, councils, consultations, discussions, dialogues, negotiations, mediation and chitchat. The spiritual value of being present while listening shines within her clear, guileless strategies. Each chapter offers concrete techniques to practice listening, and the "Daily Practices" section is filled with ways to restore loving kindness to language. She also has clear directions for "Interfaith Cafe" etiquette, where lively conversation can spark lasting change among people of different faiths, viewpoints or life experiences. Similar to her first book, this is by turns both obvious and profound; on the whole, however, it has deep merit for all who want to reclaim the essential art of spiritual listening.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Kay Lindahl is the author of The Sacred Art of Listening: Forty Reflections for Cultivating a Spiritual Practice and is the founder of The Listening Center in Laguna Niguel, California. For the past six years she has been teaching the sacred art of listening to a variety of groups, from religious and spiritual professionals to hospital workers to customer service departments all over the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893361853
• ISBN-13: 978-1893361850
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing is a spiritual experience for me - and one of deep and profound listening. It is similar to meditation. However, when I meditate I find myself first listening for God/Spirit, then listening for my internal wisdom, my soul, then listening to others as I move out into the world. When I write it is just the reverse. First I spend a lot of time listening to others - to what's going on in the world, asking myself the question - what wants to be said now? Then I take time to quiet down and reflect inwardly - what is it that my inner wisdom has to say about this. Finally I sit in silence and listen for God/Spirit. Then I usually go for a run, come back, and sit down and the writing flows. Many times, what I thought I was going to write about completely changes by the end of this process. It is a mystical process.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas for better relationships, October 21, 2003

By 

Sharda (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening: A Guide to Enrich Your Relationships and Kindle Your Spiritual Life--The Listening Center Workshop (Paperback)

I loved the simplicity and great suggestions in this book. Making the connection that relationships are a part of my spiritual journey was a great awakening. I now see each relationship, each listening, with a new awareness and openheartedness. The book gave me new tools for making those relationships deeper, through deep listening and silent reflection.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, practical book on deepening conversation, October 28, 2007

By 

Loren Ek "Author/Presenter" (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening: A Guide to Enrich Your Relationships and Kindle Your Spiritual Life--The Listening Center Workshop (Paperback)

Here we have a slender book whose values of dignity and mutual respect
shine through the skills described. Not a "technique" book, but one that
illuminates the appropriate preparation and attitudes for making deep connections with others.

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D., aka "Dr. Conversation"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars inspired and practical, February 5, 2010

By 

e.c.bruntrager (Fairfax, Va, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening: A Guide to Enrich Your Relationships and Kindle Your Spiritual Life--The Listening Center Workshop (Paperback)

The author offers both the inspiration and the means to become a sacred listener. The specific exercises for listening were particularly useful. I gave each of my children a copy of this book, so they wouldn't have to wait until they were finished with their child-rearing time of life to benefit and grow from Lindahl's wisdom.