Inner Space

Parenting

Parenting is a beautiful journey with its own challenges. Emotional and behavioral problems in either the parents or the children could pose as additional challenges to parenting and could hamper the parent-child relationship. This in turn could hurt the child’s self esteem and add to your frustration. Self help blogs in this section provide guidance towards effective and positive parenting, which which lead to healthy development of children.

group session

The Calm Jar: An Effective Mindfulness Tool To Help Children Manage Stress

Often children find it difficult to manage the flood of thoughts and emotions that they experience while coping with a difficult situation or even while disengaging from a stressful day. They may end up throwing temper tantrums, withdraw socially, lose focus, cry easily or engage in other such venting behaviours. Managing these behaviours can sometimes get tricky for the parents. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was an easier way for children to learn to calm themselves and at the same time understand how their mind and body feel and react during stressful times? In my experience of working with children, using a calm jar serves both the purposes. I have noticed that children who find it difficult to sit and follow through any other activities find it easy to use a calm jar. It is interactive, interesting, playful and at the same time soothing. Hence this activity is a very important one in our Breathing Happiness Program, which helps children develop mindfulness and focus. Regular use of the calm jar gives children a clearer understanding of how their inner weather is and at the same time helps calm it down. With practice, their nervous system learns to rest even in stressful situations creating more space for the children to respond to a situation rather than act on an impulse and react. Here is how to make and use one for your child! Take a transparent, spill proof container. Add half cup warm water to the container. Add 3 spoons of transparent glue and half a packet of loose glitter of any colour of your choice. Stir it well and fill the remaining container with room temperature water. The Calm Jar is ready to use! How To Use It? Introduce the calm jar to your child by saying the following- This jar works just like our mind and body. When we feel stressed we find it difficult to stay calm. It feels like some storm has started in our mind and body. Let’s see what happens when we shake this jar up? (Let your child observe the movement of glitter and report what they see) Glitter is just like the feelings and thoughts that we get when we are feeling upset or stressed. It moves all around and makes it difficult to see through the water. It is important to let the jar rest for the glitter to settle down. Let us see how we feel when we observe the glitter settle down as we let the jar rest at one place. (Observe the glitter settling slowly. Observing the glitter calm down helps children as well as adults calm down physiologically.) We just learnt how to calm down by observing the glitter jar! Just like this calm glitter jar, we can also clearly understand how we are feeling if we take some time to calm down. Just like some glitter settled fast and some took more time we can also let our feelings and thoughts take as much time as they need. You can start practicing with your child by using this Calm Jar 1 or 2 times a day just to get more centered. Of course you can make it your go to support system whenever your kid is feeling overwhelmed. Even if your child does not cooperate, you can use it when you are feeling stressed. It’s a wonderful tool for adults to get centered too. You can follow it up by a small meditation practice. When your children see you using it, they will feel a little more comfortable to go to the calm Jar themselves too. Happy calming down! If you have any questions about the calm Jar or about practicing mindfulness yourself or with your children, do write to us in the comment section below or on our email. We are always happy to help! About the author share this blog! OverIndulgent Parenting: Are You Giving Your Child Too Much? “We give him everything but he does not listen to… Read More Inner Space TeamJanuary 31, 2015 PRESERVING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP As parents, we are naturally concerned about our children. We… Read More Inner Space TeamDecember 4, 2011 TELLING IT RIGHT – TIPS FOR COMMUNICATION WITH CHILDREN Imagine a scenario, where you are an athlete, a runner… Read More Sadia SaeedApril 18, 2011

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mindful walking for children & teenagers

Dealing with Restlessness in Children through Walking Meditation

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our children could experience full joy while eating an ice-cream or while doing an activity they love, instead of burning out, asking for more or feeling bored? In this time of information overload and instant gratification children end up losing touch with their own mind and body. Multitasking and the expectation to take in more and more information automatically trains their neural energy and attention to shift all the time. This in turn affects their ability to pay attention to what they are doing or even completely and openly experience what they are feeling. How Would Walking Meditation Help Your Child? Walking meditation helps children feel grounded. It connects them to the present by connecting them to earth that is always present and supportive under their feet. It also regulates their energy and helps improve their ability to pay attention in the present. Along with this, it helps children to calm themselves and also manage distractions and restlessness. A new friendship with joy and relaxation develops. Walking meditation can be a good way to introduce the concept of mindfulness to children. What is Walking Meditation? It is a practice of walking slower than usual and breaking the automatic habit of walking without paying much attention. Walking involves different movements like lifting, swinging, placing foot on the ground and shifting weight to lift the other leg. The practice is to completely try and focus on each aspect of walking. It can be practiced anytime and anywhere. Having more sensations to focus on due to body movement makes it an easier practice than sitting meditation. How to do Walking Meditation with your Child? A good way is for you to start doing the practice with your child. That way you stay in touch with the feelings and sensations your child is feeling. Below are the instructions that you can use to practice Walking Meditation along with your child- Keep your eyes open while doing the practice. Keep your gaze on the ground in front of you. If at any time you get distracted and your attention moves away, very gently bring it back to the practice. Stand with both the feet flat on the ground. Concentrate on your legs and see if you are able to balance your body properly.If weight is more on one of the legs adjust it until you feel stable. Now pay full attention to how the ground feels under your feet. Does it feel warm, cold, rough , smooth? Observe this feeling for 30 seconds. (Children can notice and keep their experience to themselves. If the child is feeling restless you can ask the child to verbally report the feeling e.g using one word he or she can report, cool, hard, warm, smooth etc.) Begin by slowly lifting one leg off the ground. Notice how the leg feels as it is being lifted off the ground. Now gently swing your leg ahead and place your heel or toe on the ground. Notice the entire action of swinging and placing your foot on the ground. While paying full attention to the to the foot on the ground, shift your weight to the front foot and lift the foot that is behind. Notice the shifting of the weight and the movement. Now the same process begins with the other foot. Remember the idea is not to do it in any particular way, the idea is to notice the entire experience by noticing each small movement. Start with practicing for 5 minutes and increase the practice time as per comfort. About the author Want To Introduce the Practice of Mindfulness In your Child’s Life? Get In Touch With Us share this blog! Behavior Problems in Children – A Sign of Hidden Low Self Esteem? When you notice that your child is short tempered, stubborn,… Read More Inner Space TeamAugust 12, 2013 Disciplining Children with Compassion Do you have a young child, maybe below 7 years… Read More Inner Space TeamApril 11, 2013 CONSISTENCY IN PARENTING : AN ASPECT OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION Most parents seek guidance on how they can change the… Read More Inner Space TeamFebruary 28, 2012 TELLING IT RIGHT – TIPS FOR COMMUNICATION WITH CHILDREN Imagine a scenario, where you are an athlete, a runner… Read More Sadia SaeedApril 18, 2011

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baby blues

Do you have PPD or Baby Blues?

The arrival of your baby is no less than a joyous moment. The wait is finally over and you look forward to the next chapter of your life – motherhood. However, this burst of excitement can be overshadowed by feelings of sadness, despair, and mood swings.  Around 70 to 80% of new mothers experience these feelings soon after giving birth and this is often referred to as ‘baby blues’.   If thoughts like ‘what’s happening to me’ or ‘why am I feeling this way’ suddenly come to mind, know that you’re not alone and there’s a valid reason for it. What Are Baby Blues? Baby blues, occasionally referred to as ‘postpartum blues’ are feelings of sadness or unhappiness that many mothers experience post-delivery. Baby blues can be seen three to five days after the baby is born and you may experience certain symptoms for about a few weeks. Sometimes, baby blues and postpartum depression are used interchangeably. However, they aren’t the same. Baby Blues vs Postpartum Depression How are baby blues different from postpartum depression? Baby blues and postpartum depression differ when it comes to severity and duration of symptoms. While baby blues generally subside after  few weeks, postpartum depression can last up to a year or longer.  Symptoms Baby blues can manifest in different ways and can’t be equated to ‘just feelings of sadness’. Every mother is different – some may experience subtle and gradual feelings of melancholy while others may go through a sudden rush of different emotions. You may feel grouchy, unhappy, stressed-out, overwhelmed, and confused. Having experienced the calm and slowness of pregnancy to tending to the baby round the clock can come as a jolt, especially if you’re a first-time mother. Basic things like drinking coffee and bathing can get difficult, making this a phase of huge adjustment. How can you tell if you’re dealing with baby blues? Crying for no reason or crying over something like wearing a blouse inside out or taking a while to swaddle the baby. Feeling irritable for no apparent cause or getting angry and frustrated at something that would usually be easier to deal with. Ruminating about being trapped inside the room and no ‘me time’ may give rise to frustration since new borns requires mothers to be at their beck and call. Getting paranoid and scared almost all the time since the baby is delicate and fragile. This may look like: worrying about the baby’s health, obsessing about the quantity of breast milk, or being fearful of dropping the baby. Experiencing trouble sleeping due to the baby’s inconsistent sleep schedule, though this is something most new parents experience! Finding it challenging to focus on things required in the grocery list and trying to remember the exact location of the diaper bag or baby wipes. Having sudden episodes of panic attacks followed by feeling dizzy, nauseous, and out of breath. What causes Baby Blues? Hormones at play Given the fact that your body and mind have gone through many changes, you may experience a plethora of emotions. Hormonal imbalances in the body are one of the major factors of mood shifts. Fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels post-giving birth are linked to mood changes resulting in baby blues. Life pre-and-post pregnancy Getting pregnant is a major life change to deal with. Some women accept this shift instantly while for a few, it takes a considerable amount of time for the feeling to sink in. So, if you were fussed over by family and friends for 9 months, and now suddenly see the focus shifting towards the baby can be a lot to take in visually and emotionally. Your pregnant brain Pregnancy alters the brain. The volume of grey matter in a pregnant woman’s brain changes to a large extent making it easy to recognize a woman who’s been pregnant to a woman who hasn’t via brain scans. When you’re pregnant, the pinkish-grey tissue in the brain that’s dense with neuron cells shrinks, and takes months to return to its pre-pregnancy size making you susceptible to baby blues. Unpredictable sleep patterns Sleep changes with a newborn are unavoidable especially during nighttime when the baby wakes up either because of hunger or for a nappy change or, simply because they are adjusting to the world outside. Since you require at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep, one can imagine how challenging it can get when you experience erratic sleep patterns.  Managing Baby blues – What Can Help? Self-care – as best as possible Suffering from baby blues can feel overwhelming but can be managed. New motherhood is often accompanied by chaos and you may find it challenging to remember to eat. Ensure not to go beyond 3 to 4 hours without having a nutritious meal so that you prevent dips in your blood sugar levels. Nutrition during this time is of utmost importance as the body is simultaneously producing food for the baby in the form of breastmilk. Not eating during the day may exacerbate physical and mental challenges making it more difficult to get adequate nutrition if you’re suffering from baby blues. Some foods may help regulate mood so, set reminders on the phone to give yourself a gentle nudge to feed yourself enough throughout the day. Get Moving If possible and if time permits, start with giving your body some movement by taking a walk either at home or by taking a stroll outside. Once you start doing that, a change of scenery will help you shift your thoughts. Take a break Sleep when it’s possible especially when the baby is asleep. If that doesn’t seem doable, ask a partner or a family member to watch the baby while you snooze for 30 minutes to recharge your batteries. Power naps are effective and can help in making you feel better to take on the other half of the day. Seek help from family and friends. Let them know what they can do for you. See if they’d like to

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Are You Overprotecting Your Child?

Are You Overprotecting Your Child?

The parent of today is quite different from the parent of 20 years ago. If you are today’s parent, you read up regularly, follow various parenting blogs and try to stay aware about the resources needed to raise a child effectively. You try your best to meet all your child’s needs be it at a physical, mental or social level. Many of you may have also decided on the kind of parent you would like to be. This could be based on the kind of parenting you have received as a child. “I’ll give everything I have not received to my child”, “I’ll be the best parent and will ensure that my child is always happy, protected and successful” are commonly expressed thoughts. Hence, you go through the first few years of parenting while painstakingly fulfilling every need of your child. When your child is bored, the next toy or game is readily furnished. When she is about to cry, her favorite youtube video is ready. If she refuses food, varieties of alternatives are present. If she is confused while reciting the alphabet, ready recitals are given. When she runs into a fight with another child, the parents are spoken to. Each problem is solved, each barrier, removed. Is this kind of Parenting truly Problem Free? Considering the degree of preparation and effort involved, you might expect that this kind of parenting would be least likely to create any problems for your child in their future. However, as a common consensus among psychologists, we find that this may not always be true. As overprotected children grow and enter middle childhood and teenage, psychologists find that many of them fall into one of two symptom buckets: One bucket is Anxious and Underconfident: These children are overly worried and have low self belief. They may have difficulty in making even smaller decisions with confidence. They may have difficulty taking initiative and be overly dependent on others to fulfill their needs. The other bucket is Self-Centered and Entitled: These children grow up with a sense of entitlement. They do not like to take responsibility for their actions and are looking at others to do things for them. They come across as self centered and are unable to build meaningful relationships. Observing these behaviors in your children, you worry and you question yourself– “Where am I going wrong? I am giving my child everything, every single time!” Not finding a satisfactory answer to this, you continue the same pattern of giving them whatever they need. This makes the problematic behavior even more pronounced. Looking into your pattern of overprotecting will give you an understanding of where the problem lies. Overprotecting Your Child: When You ‘Give It All’ When you take care of “everything”, you are unknowingly overprotecting your child. Every decision from the smallest, like what to wear, to the bigger ones like future plans, are highly influenced, or perhaps even taken by you.  If your child ends up facing a problem, you have ready solutions that you want the child to implement. Sometimes, you may even implement it for him or her. You shower your child with too much attention, too quickly, to take away his or her pain. Different people can overprotect their children in different ways. You may not be doing all the things described, but do you have the orientation of quickly solving all your child’s problems? Do you find it hard to tolerate your child’s discomfort? If you do, you are probably overprotecting your child. What happens as a consequence is that the child rarely has opportunity to face a crisis or a challenge and use his or her own devices to navigate through it. For example, the child has not learnt to stay with his boredom for a few minutes and figure a way out. He has only watched his boredom being taken away. He grows up to be impatient, easily frustrated and impulsive, not having the resources to deal with boredom. Similarly, if the child handles a fight wrong, and then figures how to handle it right, she has learnt how to manage. On the other hand, if you have handled it for her, she has only watched it, not learnt it. It is thus not surprising that these children grow up to have little belief in their abilities to manage their environment. They are unable to try, because they have had little opportunity to try and fail. They see failure as meaning that they are not good enough, rather than as a part of the process of figuring something out. If you do identify with these patterns, it’s not too late.  Effective parenting, simply put, is to equip children with the necessary tools to become healthy, emotionally stable, competent and independent adults who are ready for bigger challenges in life.  A parent is a guiding light under which a child begins to design his future. How do I Begin Changing this Pattern? Allow: Keep in mind that it is a good practice to allow your child to use his or her own resources before you step in. You can help your child when they are stuck. However, once they get unstuck, let them take the lead. Ask: Ask them what they feel and how they would like to deal with the situation. Give them the inputs they need to decide well; but let them take the lead. This way, the child has support and guidance while they are also actively involved, thinking, figuring it out and growing, through each situation. Pause: See how you uneasy you feel when your child is navigating through some situation. Take a few deep breaths and see if you can stay with the discomfort instead of acting out of it. Staying with difficult emotions increases our capacity to tolerate and manage it. It also reduces the urge to act impulsively and gives you space to pause and respond in a more healthy manner. This post has been contributed by Gitali Chatterji. Gitali is

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What can you do if your child is afraid of monsters?

What to Do If Your Child is Afraid of Monsters?

What to Do If Your Child is Afraid of Monsters? “What if My 3 year old tells me he saw a ghost or monster? How should I respond? Should I ask him more about what he saw? Or should I divert his attention?” When your child is afraid of monsters, sometimes, you are not sure what the best response would be. You might wonder whether asking the child more would make him/her recollect what he saw and feel scared. On the other hand, will it help him talk it out and feel better? Well, as therapists, we would vouch for letting him express himself. The reasons for this are many:- Security: When your child is afraid of monsters, he feels better when he tells you about it. He knows that mom and dad know about this, and that they will protect him if needed. An entry point to resolving his fears: In order to help him with his fears, you have to first get to know them. When you listen to your child, you are likely to understand more about what is bothering him, and are in a better position to help him. Suppression is a silent pain you would rather avoid: Sometimes, you could momentarily distract the child, but he/she remains haunted by the memory of the monster in moments where he is alone. To add to that, he also knows that he cannot talk to you about it, because you do not approve of his being afraid of mere imagination; or, he knows that you will encourage him to pay attention elsewhere. He might try to do this himself. If he succeeds, he will probably cope in that way. However, if he fails, he is likely to move around with an unspoken fear that raises its head every now and then, and that is a painful feeling to have. It only makes him feel more afraid because he has to deal with this scary phenomenon all alone. You know you will not tease your child about it:– Your child’s friends are his age. They might pull his leg about being afraid of monsters. Sensitive children feel worse if this happens to them. On the other hand, if he speaks with you first about it, he gets a mature, caring response from an adult. This helps him feel reassured. Your reality is different than that of your child’s: Your idea of a monster is that of an imaginary thing, hardly scary, maybe even laughable. But your child does not see monsters or ghosts in the same faraway manner. For him/her, they are scary. Your child is probably worried about the possibility of them being real, and about how powerful they are.  Because they are genuinely scared, they wish to talk it out. However, what if my child is repeatedly expressing a fear of monsters? Should I not try and divert his attention? If your child is very afraid of monsters, or speaks about it often, try and gently work on the fear. Speak to him about how even if monsters are powerful, they cannot necessarily out do humans. Talk to them about how ghosts are made to look scary on TV, because otherwise nobody would go watch them! Talk about your own fears as a child, and how you managed. This is likely to slowly lessen his/her fears. In sum, listening to your child and keeping in mind that their fears are very real for them will help you, irrespective of how you explain to your child that monsters and ghosts are not real, and will not hurt him/her. We hope this piece has helped some of you with questions you might have had. Feel free to tell us what you think, and what more you would like us to write about. Post Contributed By: Malini Krishnan

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IS YOUR CHILD JUST LAZY? OR DOES HE HAVE ADHD?

Do you see that your child is impatient, impulsive and is easily distracted? Or, that he is unable to continue one task until it is completed?
If you have noticed these tendencies in your child, perhaps they are due to his nature or personality. Or then, perhaps they are not. Maybe he simply can’t help being impatient. Maybe he can’t control his mind when it drifts off his books; and by the time he realizes, 10 minutes have passed.

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Understanding the Stubborn Child

DECODING THE ‘ STUBBORN CHILD ’

Most of you may have come across a child who is naughty and stubborn, who tends to be insistent on getting his way, so much that people have to give in to what he wants much of the time. Some of you may even live with one such child in your family. This article is an attempt to unravel what such a child thinks, feels and needs. There is a further article here that elaborates on how parents and caregivers can better understand and deal with these children.

Stubborn children get noticed in most places – at home for sure, also at school, at play, even in public places and restaurants at times, much to their parents’ despair. It is easy to notice them; however, is it as easy to understand them?

Stubbornness and difficult behavior have their own way of functioning. They exist in the child for a reason. Until this reason is understood, children cannot be helped completely to change these behaviors. What’s more, if these reasons are not understood and appreciated, well meaning parents and teachers can do more harm than good to the child.

I invite you here to-
Take a Peek into the Stubborn Child

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Is it okay to say no in the face of a temper tantrum?

IS IT OKAY TO SAY NO IN THE FACE OF A TEMPER TANTRUM?

This is a question I am often asked by parents in therapy.

‘How to react if the child throws a temper tantrum?’

If you are a parent, you probably have been through this dilemma and resolved it. Or maybe you are going through it at present.

Some children find it easier to adjust when things don’t go their way. They may occasionally cry or fuss a little, but they’re largely open to adjusting.

Some children find it extremely difficult to make such an adjustment. They tend to get very upset when things don’t go their way. They may cry loudly, shout and insist that their demand be met with. The more you deny them what they want, the more they cry and the temper tantrum aggravates. Ultimately, you reach a place where you don’t know how to react.

In such a scenario, what is better? To fulfill the child’s demand or say no?

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Advantages of Nuclear Family

NUCLEAR FAMILIES – AN ADVANTAGE FOR CHILDREN?

I often come across parents of nuclear families these days that are juggling between work, home, and baby- sitters. They constantly ponder about the fact that their children would be raised better in the hands of their family members or grandparents versus a baby- sitter, or a care- taker. So are we blaming the changing structure of families to give rise to this new set of tensions? Of course, the nuclear family versus joint family debate has been ongoing, which in turn has impacted the way child rearing takes place. Since the breakdown of the joint families has started, it has resulted in a great disconnect from the extended family which is making children more aloof and isolated. The concept of cousins being your child’s first set of friends, is disappearing by each passing day. With joint families, childcare arrangements were never an issue. But now mothers have to worry about leaving their children with care- takers who could possibly be total strangers.Children are becoming more and more detached from the socio- cultural events. You and I have probably grown up celebrating a lot of festivals with a large group of family members visiting from all over the city, or even country. That has now boiled down to just the parents and children having a quiet dinner along with probably a few friends. Does that leave you thinking that you’re unable to provide a comforting and nurturing environment for your child, while you’re away at work? A great deal of our energy is spent wondering, whether children are in tune with the spiritual and religious aspects that we have been raised with, or whether the environment they’re growing up in is nurturing enough. Do you often ponder about the disadvantages of having a nuclear family? Lets pause and think about the ways in which we could integrate this shift in lifestyle with a healthier approach in addressing these issues. Giving nuclear families the “heads up”– There can also be advantages of nuclear families Not all is bad when raising a child in a nuclear set up. As I was discussing these issues with some of my clients in therapy, they brought up a very empowering aspect of the nuclear family set up- the child learns to become independent and develops a sense of autonomy at an early age. And this can be a positive aspect in this situation. It is important to allow for independence to facilitate and build autonomy in children. Things like, letting them decide their sleep timings and involving them in household chores go a long way in developing a sense of responsibility in children. Also, this little contribution in the housework by parents as well as the children could be one of the shared activities the family could do together. “My opinion matters”: Role of children in the Family As parents of nuclear families, there’s another advantage you can build for your children, by letting them know that their opinion in making decisions matters. It could be as trivial as deciding the color of your new car, or as important as deciding their own career path. Taking into account the opinions shared by your children could be an important step in validating them. This role of children in the family in making decisions could be an important aspect in shaping your child’s personality. This aspect can also more commonly be called- the role of consensus. Making small rituals a part of your weekly activities together could help your children keep in touch with the cultural aspect they are told to be losing out upon. Hopefully, these little things will help you as parents to nurture your child’s development. Not intending to sound clichéd but isn’t it too apt to say that change is, and will be inevitable. Its upon us how we try to make it difficult on ourselves, or use it in a way that would be beneficial to us, and our children, who are, the future generation. I came across this article which presents an interesting take on Modern Families and its effects on Children. Click here to read. Image Credit: Yogendra174 About the Author: Bijal Oza is a Psychologist & Counselor at Inner Space – A center for counseling and psychological assessment. You can know more about her here. You can follow Inner Space on Google+ Facebook and Twitter for regular updates of our work and share with us what you feel about this post.

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Holding Hands

CONSISTENCY IN PARENTING : AN ASPECT OF BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

Most parents seek guidance on how they can change the negative behavior of their children and encourage more positive behavior. We have held two workshops at Inner Space focusing on behavior modification addressing these concerns. Behavior modification is the process applied to enable the child and parents to methodically bring about the required changes. It involves setting up rules of actions and consequent positive or negative repercussions. Positive behavior gets rewards while negative behavior gets no rewards.

This is also what we often do in life naturally. However, more often than not we do it inconsistently.

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The Art of Listening