Good afternoon, we're going to take a few minutes and discuss the five elements of the listening process, some obstacles to listening, and some tools that I use to improve my listening process. . Listening is not as easy as you think. Ask yourself, how well are we listening? Let's look at each of the five elements to better understand what listening really is. The first element is hearing. Most people think that listening is hearing when in fact hearing is just the physiological reaction the body produces when there are audible sounds. When these sounds, composed of different frequencies and intensities, resonate on the eardrum, the brain processes them into understandable information. These sounds tell us several things about our environment, our emotions and our messages. While we hear words which constitute communication, the other 4 elements are necessary to listen effectively and thus communicate. Being present is the psychological aspect of the listening process. This is the attention we pay to what we hear and serves as a process to filter certain sounds to avoid overload in our brain. When overload occurs, we become confused, frustrated, and agitated. Overload poses a significant barrier to communication and affects the listening process. There are a few factors to consider that happen automatically and we are not even aware that we are doing it. Our subconscious selectively diverts its attention to more interesting or pleasant things. An example would be trying to do homework and watch TV at the same time. While some claim they can effectively accomplish both, it is nearly impossible to focus equally on both tasks and both activities suffer. Selectivity is also a deliberate process and that is why we...... middle of paper...... that affect listening are gender, bias, culture, noise and again fear, just to name a few. The basic tool for reducing or limiting these obstacles is to simply identify the obstacle and consciously try not to do it. I know it's easier said than done, but just pick one of the obstacles I mentioned that fits your listening habits, then try to avoid it. For me it's a quick thought, my mind tends to race 100 miles per hour during a discussion, meeting or lecture. I have to make a deliberate attempt to slow down my racing thoughts and focus on the messages being sent. Sometimes when I do this, I find that the reason my brain is in fast action is because I am not interested in the topic of discussion. Another tool to improve your listening is to modify your environment to eliminate noise and create an atmosphere that promotes effective listening..