Everyone thinks they're great listeners. But the truth is that hearing isn’t necessarily listening, nor is it necessarily listening well. Listening is an art as well as a basic life skill that we are encouraged to practise and master.【小题1】

●Don't interrupt

【小题2】 To master the art of listening, you need to stop any good thoughts that come to mind and let the person say everything they need to say. Often times people simply need someone to talk to, not someone who will cut in and give their own thoughts and opinions.

●Practice active listening.

To understand better in communication, you can first practice active listening. The art of listening isn't simply about staying quiet 100% of the time, it's also about asking questions, which are for clarification or for further explanation, so that you can fully understand what the speaker is telling you. 【小题3】 You can also make noises that show you agree with what he person is saying such as “yes”, ‘'yeah", and “okay.”

●【小题4】

About 60-75% of our communication is accomplished without speaking. In order to know whether to encourage the speaker, or to open yourself more, it's essential to know what the person's body is saying. Do they display signs of discomfort? Are they cautious about you? Their body language tells a lot.

●Create a suitable environment.

It can be difficult to listen to another person when the TV is screaming, your phone is buzzing and there are thousands of cars passing by. 【小题5】 Also, when you indicate it would be good to “find a quiet place," you put importance in the person and what they say, and then you show care and consideration.

How Interest Rates Affect Spending

With every loan, there is a possibility that the borrower will not repay the money. To compensate lenders for that risk, there must be a reward: interest. Interest is the amount of money that lenders earn when they make a loan that the borrower repays, and the interest rate is the percentage of the loan amount that the lender charges to lend money.

The existence of interest allows borrowers to spend money immediately, instead of waiting to save the money to make a purchase. The lower the interest rate, the more willing people are to borrow money to make big purchases，such as houses or cars. When consumers pay less in interest，this gives them more money to spend, which can create a chain effect of increased spending throughout the economy. Businesses and farmers also benefit from lower interest rates, as it encourages them to make large equipment purchases due to the low cost of borrowing. This creates a situation where output and productivity increase.

Conversely, higher interest rates mean that consumers don’t have as much disposable (可支配的) income and must cut back on spending. When higher interest rates are coupled with increased lending standards, banks make fewer loans. This affects not only consumers, but also businesses and farmers, who cut back on spending for new equipment, thus slowing productivity or reducing the number of employees. The tighter lending standards mean that consumers will cut back on spending, and this will affect many businesses1 bottom lines. This will cause the businesses to reduce the number of employees that they have and to hold off on any major equipment purchases.

As a professional life and relationship coach, Allison Cowan has over 21 years of experience in teaching and supporting others to achieve their goals. She has dedicated her career to helping her clients gain power and awareness in their lives.

As a coach, Allison inspires her clients to overcome obstacles and achieve goals. However, her practice has come with its own share of challenges. Expanding her knowledge to meet diverse client needs has involved lots of trial-and-error searching.

Initially, Allison spent a hard time building strong and trustworthy relationships with her clients. She knew trust was critical to finding and retaining clients but was frustrated at how long the trust-building process takes.

Allison soon learned that there was no single right way to coach. To meet her clients’ different needs, she needed to become more efficient at supporting their diverse learning styles. To overcome her challenges as a coach and offer better service, she began looking for ways to customize her coaching solutions.

During her search, Allison realized Positive Psychology is a field with many different goals. “It covers so many areas, including whatever a client may go through,” she recalled. Later, she began using self-reflection tools to help her clients develop self-acceptance and self-forgiveness. She even discovered a way to help clients without a coaching goal find their purposes. She said, “There’s a lot of blame. The more they stay in blame mode, the more angry they are, and they are not able to move forward with acceptance and forgiveness. But we can find solutions in Positive Psychology.”

Whether Allison was helping clients build self-confidence, understand their attachment styles, or reframe their challenges, she quickly found that she was also learning all the time. By completing the homework Allison assigned to them, her clients were also changing. They were more engaged with their coaching and making more significant progress between their sessions. That made Allison proud. She said, “They grow and move forward at a quicker pace. That’s what coaching is about.”