May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and I want to talk about the role of listening in emotional and mental wellbeing. And I don't simply mean listening with your ears. I mean listening with all of your senses.
Listening through your eyes and recognizing that the typical upbeat body language of a friend or co-worker is missing, so asking them how they are REALLY doing and offering to sit with them and just hear them out.
Listening amidst the silence - the absence of connection or response from a friend who is overwhelmed, so reaching out with quick check-in texts, emails or voicemails to let them know you are thinking about them, but not needing anything from them (even a response).
Listening through possibly the odor of someone having difficulty finding the value of bathing or taking care of themselves and taking that as a cue that they may be isolated, so making an effort to ask how they are doing with curiosity and not judgment.
Listening as a sounding board for someone without the need to fix or solve their issue, but rather simply allowing some release of emotional build up for that person.
These are some ways of listening that may keep people from slipping into a poor mental state. It doesn't take as much as we often think to show someone they are not alone. Acknowledging a person with a smile or a nod, acknowledging a person who isn't themself, acknowledging a person who is particularly quiet and keeps to themself... we don't have to (nor should we) do the work for them, but we can show we care in small ways that may just make a big difference in that person's life and, by extension, our lives as well.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255