Just Listen!

Listening is a hard skill to master.. In our lives we always think we listen when in fact we don't. So, this is what this thread is about.
What do you think "Listening" is?
and how do you respond after listening? Do you; sympathize, stay quiet, talk about a similar experience you had? or give advice?

I regard listening as when you stay quiet and know what the person is saying, why they're saying it, how they're saying it and what they mean by it. It is the ability to understand a person and their personality and mood. While listening a person should show signs of interest; eye contact, body language, sounds and gestures that show understanding... etc. Also, a person should ask if they don't understand something or try rephrasing what was said to see if they understood right.

I never get the responding part, although I do think I'm a good listener, only the response to what the person has been saying is what seals the deal.

I think of it as the same actually. being able to fully get what they are communicating and being able to respond with what is appropriate.
if the person is simply venting, i believe you should try to sympathize at least as much as you can, if they are feeling like they're the only one that has to deal with what they are talking about it would be best to share a similar story and so on, it all depends on the situation.
or so i believe

Every professional counselor I have ever spoken with in a non doctor patient relationship has stressed to me that they are trained listeners . There was a woman that used to communicate with me in body language that got into a lot of trouble . While she was locked up she professed a new faith in a higher power that she voluntarily shared with anyone who would listen . After she was murdered at a place, where the criminals sell illegal chemicals, the local papers spoke of a tape she had made while she was in prison . Some how I obtained that tape and listened. Among the quotes that she shared in a personal way was that the wounded make the best healers. A willful decision to change a destructive course can never be forced. I have friends that if they needed a loan for short term relief from a tobacco addiction I would help them obtain the tobacco without preaching the dangers of smoking. When I worked at the club that would sell as much booze and unhealthy food as costumers would buy I listened to complaints that the greasy food we served at three in the morning to absorb the over indulgence in distilled spirits would most likely lead to the need of bypass surgery
The only thing that annoys me is when people rhetorically ask me what my problem is and they have no intention to listen . Has anyone else ever felt that emotional pain?

Active listening, which is what the counselling skill is called, is very difficult. You have to tone down your ego, and your natural responses and really sort of submit yourself to not just the words of the person speaking to you, but everything about them.

You are quite literally, allowing yourself to be absorbed by them. You need to take it all in to help them push it out.