Lockdown 607

Lockdown Day 607 - 23 November 2021

About 75% of the conversations I heard while out people watching, were not meaningful and most people were in their own world of thought, easily distracted and completely switched off. To me it seemed silence would've been the better option in all those conversations.

When you actively decide to shut your mouth, you are actually more invested in the conversation and the person you are sharing time with. It is as if your hearing is amplified when you force close your speech.

Learning to do that is a challenge for most people, even the introverts and the quiet ones.

Another conversation nuance is the depth of your relationship and even in these, important things get lost in translation. When you need to zoom out, treat the conversation as a silent zone and you will find zooming back in becomes easier.

You see, in a world of tech where everything happens at lightning speed, there is no time to pause or stop. Truth is, pauses and gaps are what really give meaning to the essence of conversation.

In his book "How We Talk", Nick Enfield suggests humans mostly follow the "no gap, no pause" method. The brain can formulate an answer or statement in 600 milliseconds, and takes only 200 milliseconds to react in a conversation turn-around (when the other person pauses).

The trick is to harness the brain's genius and install an automatice pause button on it, ready to use when released.

So, this learning curve continues while God's still got this.