You might not truly understand everything you hear which could make you feel befuddled and puzzled today. It may be that your misinterpretations are due to your guessing what someone is saying rather than hearing them out completely. Setting the intention to listen to others carefully could help you to pay attention to what is happening. Perhaps you might even wish to paraphrase the gist of what you hear during your conversations through active listening, which is when you repeat what another person has said. This may help slow you down enough to really pay attention, affirm that you have understood the message you hear completely, and let the other person know that you are paying attention. Doing this today could make things go much more smoothly by making it easier for you to you reduce the amount of confusion that can arise in your interactions.

Letting others know that we have understood them is a wonderful way to head off any misconstruction of meaning in our conversations. Even though miscommunication is usual, it is often to our best advantage if we proactively work toward making certain that we really comprehend the messages we hear. If we do this we can lessen our sense of frustration that can arise when we don't quite get things and also open the way for more honest forms of communication. Using active listening today will make your conversations much more effortless -- and more enjoyable as a result.