Some of the benefits of Active Listening include:
- Being listened to gives the speaker an opportunity to find catharsis and relief by venting their problems. When feelings are expressed and accepted, they often lose their grip on the speaker and become more easily managed.
- Having someone understand and empathize can relieve paralyzing “emotional flooding,” which in turn frees the mind to take action.
- Simply putting problems into words can help people see past their immediate concerns and spot the more basic problems that lie at the root.
- Talking is a time-tested method of helping people to deal with their feelings, rather than just facts, and can also allow the speaker to spot flaws in their reasoning when they hear their thoughts spoken out loud.
- Talking can help the speaker discover new insights — new ways of seeing things, new attitudes, new behaviors, and new understandings of themselves.
- Getting in touch with the parts of oneself that are hard to talk about allows the speaker to become more open and honest with themselves and others.
- Sometimes, all a person really needs is to have their feelings acknowledged, to know that they are not wrong to feel the way they do, before they can relax enough to soften their position or consider alternative perspectives.
- Multiple studies have shown that when we experience compassion — even from just watching a video — the immunoglobulin-A (s-IgA) in our saliva (which is considered a good indication of overall immune function) rises significantly.