BY WENDY KAUR
Active listening means fully engaging your senses, avoiding interruptions, and refraining from pre-planning responses to understand the speaker's emotions, a skill therapists employ in their practice.
People highly attuned to others' emotions often ask empathetic questions based on their intuition level, according to Rick Hanson, PhD, who suggests that emotionally-attuned questions should be respectful and not mixed with asserting one's own views or needs.
If you can actively listen and absorb the emotions of others, you may be an empath, defined as someone highly attuned to others' energies and emotions, but it's crucial to establish boundaries to protect your emotional well-being, as empaths often attract people's problems and can be vulnerable to manipulation and toxic behaviors, according to Crystal Raypole of Healthline.
Understanding body language, such as hand movements, posture, and facial expressions, is essential for interpreting emotions and intentions, particularly in journalism, where it adds nuance to interviews and helps read between the lines.
Those attuned to others' emotions tap into their intuition by opening up to their own gut feelings, empathetically placing themselves in the other person's shoes and considering their thoughts, memories, expectations, needs, and intentions to form instinctive, emotionally-educated observations while also using their instincts to navigate appropriate questions, according to Hanson.