Friendships & Conversation
Imagine if you struggled to hear your friends . . .
What does that do to your friendships and conversations? You try harder, listen harder. But you struggle to “keep up” with the conversations. Your friends blow you off. They think you’re not interested or not paying attention. You think they don’t care.
Friendships & conversations suffer . . . without realizing that hearing IS the connection.
Hearing is how you connect and build relationships. Friendships & conversations are maintained through hearing.
Hearing is SOCIAL! It is important for mental health and well-being. It is important for the ebb and flow of relationships. Hearing enables friendships & conversations to happen! It is important to practice our hearing skills in a social setting.
Practice your social hearing skills:
***Strengthen your ability to track separate conversations. Who is talking about what? Topics change with many interruptions. Count how many times the topic changes. Practice listening to one person in a group, then change who you are focused on. This improves your hearing tracking ability.
***Practice chatting in competing noise, restaurants, meetings. Talk over the crashing waves while you walk on the beach. Practicing this improves your brain’s ability to filter out unwanted sound.
***Overcome interruptions and side chatter with practice. Ignore interruptions. Remember who was talking. Ignore separate conversations. Tune out. Don’t get sidetracked. This strengthens brain/hearing connections.
It’s easy to insist on meeting in quiet places, but look at your next social gathering as an opportunity to strengthen your hearing! Covid-19 left us in a quiet world unable to practice our auditory “filtering” skills. Practice relearning these auditory skills now as we re-engage with our social groups. As the saying goes, “Use it or lose it.” Those that practice these skills keep hearing strong!
We are trained to keep your hearing healthy! Follow our plan and you’ll be on the road to hearing wellness for 2021 and beyond!
Dr. Anita Carroll is a licensed Audiologist and owner of Hearing Solutions in the Triangle, PLLC with over 25 years of experience. Need some wellness tips – she can be contacted here. If you’re looking to test hearing or improve listening skills visit our online scheduling here.
