LISTEN!

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice,
you have not done what I asked.


When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.


When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.


Listen! All I asked was that you listen.
Not talk or DO - just hear me.

Advice is cheap - you can Google answers to countless questions.

And I can do for myself, I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and weakness.

But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
No matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you
and can get about the business of understanding what's behind
this irrational feeling.And when that's clear, the answers are obvious
And I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings can make sense when we understand what's behind them.

So, please listen and just hear me.
And, if you want to talk, wait a while for your turn, and I will listen to you!

Go well