Help! I Just Want Someone To Listen To Me!

Emotional Support Listening Can Provide A Healing

“I just need someone to listen to my problems!” ” I just need someone to talk to.” ” I just need someone to talk to about my feelings…”

Do the above statements resonate with you? Sometimes, you just need someone to take the time to simply be quiet and listen… really listen.

Can YOU Relate to this Story?

I remember painfully and clearly, what it felt like when my family members and friends did not understand me or what I was going through. It seemed like everyone I approached either didn’t have time, empathy, or patience for me.

And sure, there were empathetic friends who tried to make an effort to listen, but here’s the deal: it was very apparent that they didn’t have (or rather, didn’t know) the skills necessary to truly listen effectively.

Bless their hearts, they strived to listen. You know how it is — they do the necessary head nods and pauses and interject ‘yes, I understand’ but I knew they didn’t really understand. I felt like a lot of the time, they were just paying lip service. Do you know what I mean?

Needless to say, I felt suffocated, isolated, and invisible.

Or worse yet, I felt ignored. And I don’t know about you, but for me, feeling ignored is the worst feeling of them all. It’s like you don’t exist. And this in turn makes you feel as if you’re worthless.

So, the ugly truth is when someone is feeling this way, it only takes one or two additional efforts to reach out and if the same results continue, it triggers a vicious cycle of despair and hopelessness.

YES, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WILL LISTEN AND HEAR YOU!

First and foremost, I want to assure everyone reading this blog, that yes… there ARE people who will listen and actually ‘HEAR’ what you have to say.

Made You Smile Back is proud to take on this important topic and dive in and explore what you can do if you need to find someone to listen to you and ‘feel’ your situation.

In addition, Made You Smile Back is also proud to enlighten and hopefully, for us to become better listeners. Because in so doing, not only do WE become a better listener, it will also help US in future life struggles that impact us and for the times we will NEED someone to listen to us.

Please Hear What I’m Trying to Say!

Have you ever wanted to just reach out to your friend or family member and just ‘shake them’ and scream ‘listen to ME!’ When this happens it affects our physical health and emotional well-being.

Feeling unheard can create strong internal emotions which in turn can cause one to go ‘down the rabbit hole’ of depression and anxiety. As humans and social creatures, we crave connection, so it makes sense that we feel not only emotionally upset but it takes a serious toll on our self-esteem and self-worth.

When Someone Truly Listens, It’s a Healing!

According to GoodTherapy, “when someone truly listens, it’s a healing!” There ARE people who will listen deeply and without judgment. Yes, they are few and far between (it seems), but when you meet someone like this, here is what you can pleasantly expect:

These special people listen so patiently and intently to all your words and feelings, both expressed and unexpressed that you then easily find yourself pouring out your heart…

When you are allowed to freely express yourself; you can easily release all your fears, disappointments and emotional pain. This is truly therapeutic and healing.

If you get a skilled ‘listener’, you will instantly feel you’re in a no-judgment and empathetic space and you can feel both understood and validated.

NEVER UNDER-ESTIMATE THE POWER OF TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO REALLY LISTENS

When you do find someone who provides you with a ‘no-judgment-free-zone’, it’s important to talk to him/her about everything that’s seriously bothering you. And keep talking until you feel relief. You may have to talk to more than one person to get the relief you need for yourself personally.

If there’s no one in your life like this, and you don’t think you can find anyone, then go online and google search for a good therapist, like those on betterhelp.org or on psychologytoday.com.

Another option is to seek out a Life Coach, or more specifically, a Happiness Life Coach. Make sure they are accredited. Many people feel more comfortable talking to someone who has ‘walked the walk’ themselves and have life experience of deep emotional pain themselves.

When you are able to talk with a highly trained, skilled, and naturally intuitive professional, you can shorten the time of ‘feeling down on yourself’ and begin your own personal journey of healing.

You owe it to yourself to do whatever it takes to prevent depression, or deeper depression. It’s really so simple (though not always easy), yet so important.

As a Happiness Life Coach myself, after taking the time to ‘listen’ and ‘hear’ my clients, I then begin our engagement by asking thought-provoking questions. For instance, how would you answer these questions:

• “What really makes you happy?” …
• “What does your soul yearn for more than anything?” …
• “What are you most grateful for in your life today?” …
• “Can you forgive others who have hurt you and move on?”

A skilled psychologist, social worker, life coach or someone like myself, a Happiness Life Coach can provide measurable healing and mental well-being to their clients. This is done by their powerful listening ability. And when done well, you can come away with life-coping strategies that truly not only restore your self-esteem and well-being, but also proves to be life-transforming.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE ‘ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’!

Let’s Do Our Part & Remove the Stigma of Admitting to having Mental Illness such as Depression and Anxiety

– Beth Elkassih, Author

Made You Smile Back would be totally amiss if we didn’t address the ‘elephant in the room’. Let’s face it, our culture doesn’t encourage people to talk about their emotional pain and life struggles. Instead, our culture teaches us to suppress our feelings…

We are told that we should not ‘feel sorry for ourselves’, to not ‘dwell’ on our problems. How many of us have been told to ‘get over it’ or ‘be strong’, etc. or if you are part of some world cultures or religions, you’re told ‘you’re not supposed to talk about it in public’ let alone minimizing it behind closed doors of your own family household!

Folks, today… more than ever, we need to actually ‘get over hiding or suppressing our feelings’! We should NEVER APOLOGIZE for how we are feeling. Feeling sadness, despair, depression, anxiety, grief is part of the human condition!

I GUARANTEE YOU… there is not ANY HOUSEHOLD, here in the United States or even anywhere abroad is immune to these emotional difficulties… We all face life struggles and it’s okay! It’s OKAY to feel this way!

STOP ‘STUFFING YOUR FEELINGS’ AND SPEAK UP!

We need to stop ‘stuffing our feelings’ just because it was how we were raised or what society has incorrectly impressed upon us. Mental Health fitness is JUST AS IMPORTANT as our physical health fitness. Period. There! I said it.

Furthermore, for many men, emotions like sadness, loneliness, disappointment, anxiety, guilt and shame often take the form and appearance of anger. But; this is so misinterpreted as to the true emotion they are having.

As a result, unhealthy behaviors in order to cope may include using alcohol, other substances, or addictive activities in order to continue pushing their genuine feelings down.

THE BENEFIT OF FINDING A ‘PROFESSIONAL LISTENER’

When we are aligned with someone, whether it is a special empathetic friend, a licensed social worker, a psychologist, or a Happiness Life Coach there is something intrinsic in the way human beings react and respond when receiving simple, but skillful, response to talking about their emotional pain, whatever it may be.

According to Harriet Cabelly, a writer for https://tinybudda.com:

“There is something basic in the way human beings react when receiving this simple, but skillful, response to talking about their emotional pain. Human contact goes hand-in-hand with talking. We all need to see people smile at us, be warm toward us, perhaps even touch us in a friendly, appropriate way. Warm, caring human contact is essential for us to live and thrive.”

– Harriet Cabelly, CONTRIBUTING WRITER FOR TINYBUDDA

Emotional pain takes on different forms, whether it’s chronic depression, sadness, grief, anxiety, loneliness, isolation, etc. Emotional pain is emotional pain and we need to release it to get on with ‘living’ and rediscovering ourselves and begin feeling significantly better and being happy again.

When you do find that special ‘someone’ who has learned the art of ’empathetic emotional active listening’ which goes much more than just ‘hearing’, you will find that you shall be on your way back to yourself and reclaiming the joy and happiness you deserve to have!

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

In the book, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, provides the following tips for those of us who wish to learn how to ‘listen fully’:

TIPS TO LISTEN FULLY

1. Realize the distinction between listening and hearing.

Hearing is an auditory/physiological process. Listening involves the whole person — mind, heart, and soul. Attentiveness, interest, and concern need to shine through.

Listen with your whole self. Forget yourself for a short while and show an interest. There’s so much to learn from people. Everybody has a story.

2. Reflect back on what the other says.

Comment on it; it makes them feel heard. All too often we bring it back to ourselves. Let people feel that it’s all about them for that moment.

3. Be present and stay focused.

Stay with the other person’s talk. It’s obvious when the listener is simply thinking about his next comment.

4. Ask questions — meaningful ones.

Not the concrete 5 W questions (where, what, who, when, why). It shows you really want to understand the other person, not just participate at the bare minimum.

5. Acknowledge feelings.

I know this can sound like touchy-feely stuff, but it’s the crux of good communication. It’s worth repeating again: when people feel understood, they’re less likely to get defensive and argumentative.

As human beings, our visceral need is to feel held, with words, rather than to receive solutions.

When we get the space and understanding we need, we can usually come to our own answers. And if not, there’s always time to brainstorm for possible solutions.

EMOTIONAL LISTENING SUPPORT

So… do you feel you need to reach out right now, right this moment, to someone who can provide you with genuine ’emotional listening support’, then here are a couple of resources for you:

Calling CONTACT Helpline @ 1–800–932–4616 (Toll Free) 24 hours a day. A friendly warm and compassionate Helpline Specialist is waiting to talk with you. Talk about anything, the weather, problems on the job, your feelings of loneliness and isolation. It is a safe place to reach out and connect, connect with another person.

Teen Line

(717)394–2000

Suicide Helpline

1–800–273–8255

If this is an emergency please call you local crisis intervention.

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