Listening: The Gift
To listen is to give a generous gift, it is to give time and energy and a piece of oneself. Listening is creating an open space in your heart and mind for a fellow human, and then holding them there for a little while with understanding and compassion.
When we accept a chat request, we are saying YES to willingly creating space for another person. It means we made a choice to carve time out from our own lives to give to a member, and that we've done so because we want to. Mentally, we put aside our own worries and concerns to create room for theirs. We open up our hearts to care for them and to empathize.
We are thankful for every single one of you here - you are doing something incredibly special!
Keeping Each Other Safe
It is vitally important that we create healthy boundaries with members, in order to protect our emotional energy reserves and avoid burnout. One of the easiest, clearest and most straightforward ways in which a listener can set boundaries on their availability is by using the online/busy/offline settings.
It is important to note that a listener being online in the chat room does not mean that they are currently available for listening.
It is absolutely okay for a listener to be online and not be available to listen at that time and we need to respect one another's right to be unavailable. No obligation, no questions asked. In many ways the chat room is like our staff room and everyone is entitled to a break - just as cleaners are entitled to take a break from cleaning, teachers are entitled to take a break from teaching, doctors are entitled to take a break from healing, listeners are entitled to take a break from listening.
THANK YOU to each and every listener, for being here and giving our members the precious gift of being heard and understood. We're grateful for all that you do, and for making this community the wonderful, caring place that it is today. Be safe!