One Thing Every Man Needs to Hear

The One Thing Every Man Needs to Hear

There is one thing I think every man would benefit from: I’m talking about opening their eyes and ears to their relationships. That means that the best thing a man can do is listen to their woman. Most men are familiar with the phrase “It’s like talking to a brick wall,” because we’ve heard it a time or two.

There are numerous studies that describe men and women as complete opposites. Men supposedly have an inability to read emotions, because we’re taught at a young age to resist our brain from empathizing with feelings. We’d rather stop the process at its physical state of arousal, which is why when a woman is describing her bad day to us, we prefer to try to do something about it, rather than just listen and understand.

Then there are the studies that have concluded that men have an overabundance of “old brain,” which is basically an excuse for why we mostly just grunt and scratch ourselves a lot. Our brains have not evolved beyond the stages of basic communication; so full sentences are not always an option.

I’m from the school of thought that believes that men aren’t all that far away from women emotionally. There are studies that suggest men are actually slightly more in touch with their emotions at birth, but through social interactions learn to stifle this. I think a big part of these differences has a lot to do with motivation. The motivation to hear, the motivation to understand, and the motivation to empathize and change our actions in order to make our partner’s life easier.

Where most articles instruct women on how to play a vocal tune that guys will understand, this one is meant to help men meet women halfway. Hopefully, somewhere along those borders we can discover a compromise to help improve our ability to communicate, listen, and understand each other. Listen up guys, because I know you’re only going to read this once.

The Best Way to End Nagging… is to Listen!

There is a reason that we’re told to turn the television down twenty times during the season playoffs. It’s because you didn’t listen the first time she asked. You don’t have to do exactly what she says, but you do have to acknowledge her request, and attempt to make a compromise to satisfy both sides.

Don’t View Arguing as a Competition

Nobody ever wins a fight in a love relationship. Just ask the guy across the street who’s sleeping on the couch tonight. Men view a heated argument as a competition, and end up planning their defense while she’s speaking. The best way to end any argument is to listen, repeat, validate her feelings, and then get on with the make-up sex.

“Keep your partner happy by being happy yourself.” – Blythe ext. 5339

Listen, Repeat and Validate

A guy’s ego is easily hurt, which is why when a woman starts expressing frustration you immediately turn on your selective hearing: “Those potato chips are leaving crumbs on the couch. Are you listening to me? You think you’re so cute.” This request ends up sounding like “Those crumbs on the couch are so cute.” However, rather than tuning her out, try listening to what she says and then repeating it back to her in such a way as to validate that you understand her. When a guy tells a girl to “lighten up” or “chill out,” he’s basically saying her needs are unimportant to him.

Rediscover Empathy

Studies show that when a guy is in a heated debate, his heart rate and blood pressure explode through the roof. This is because arguing triggers the fight or flight response. At this point, his body wants to take action (do something), but all he can think of is to yell and flail his arms about. As far as most men are concerned, this is how an argument ends: frustrated, and with him tending a throbbing headache.

Women have a different final step to this response, involving empathizing with the other person. Research suggests that guys resist this stage, because they’ve been taught to shy away from emotions. If you can rediscover empathy, you can bypass anger, skipping right to the understanding and problem-solving stage.

Now that we’ve got that over with, you’ll soon be wishing you listened to your girl a lot sooner!

“Relationships magnify the human experience.” – Quinn ext. 5484

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10 thoughts on “One Thing Every Man Needs to Hear

  1. Sherri

    Arise: How’s this for “dumb”? “It’s just Facebook.” Yeah, that’s in response to offending people online.

    Reply
  2. Sherri

    Thanks for the comic relief! Really, the way you wrote this article is hilarious, but also so right on and so valuable. Thank you!

    Reply
  3. simoneblvd

    Wait til you are much older and can’t hear as well, esp. the man. Men lose the ability to hear higher pitched sounds (that would be a woman’ voice). Women lose the ability to hear deeper sounds, (that would be the male’s voice). But some other background, daily life sounds, and a room or two between them and you will hear, Betty, Betty, getting louder and louder and her saying What? What??? and him saying Betty, Betty come here, and her saying, What? what do you want,I’m busy and him saying COME HERE, I need your help. This goes on all day. Fun huh? Well this stage of life is when listening is really, really important. The man with the hearing aide can conveniently turn it down and just nod his head. The woman who can’t hear what he’s saying just says yeah, then you realize that this is ridiculous! You try to work out strategies or say ” I can’t hear you cause all the appliances in this house are running!” Just standing by running water at a sink makes hubby in the living room unintelligible no matter how hard you strain to hear. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s not. But the older you get the more you sound like two old geezers saying HEH!?, WHAATT!?, WHILE MAKING UGLY FACES. THAT’S FUNNY TOO AND IT MAKES YOU LAUGH BECAUSE YOU’RE ALREADY THERE. OH AND THEN THE MEMORY FOR NAMES ELUDES YOU. Lots of fun to be had there. What was the name of that guy, you know the one with the hair, in that movie we saw? Your partner says, what movie, you describe the guy some more. You know the one that we saw in that show 2 weeks ago, the one you like, he’s funny and has dark hair. Well it is a conversation starter isn’t it? Then about 4 minutes later, one or the other of you remembers how the name sounded and finally the other refines the new clues and finally says the right name, and let me tell you you feel like you won the lottery. Sad, but true.

    Reply
  4. Aimee

    This is the basic Imago Relationship Dialogue technique and theory, based on Harville Hendrix teachings.
    Listen Repeat Validate.

    Reply
  5. Crystal

    FOUR THINGS A MAN NEEDS TO HEAR…..1. YOU’RE THE MAN 2. YOU’RE IMPORTANT 3. WE WILL HAVE LOTS OF SEX 4. I AM THE WOMAN THAT WILL CONTROL THE FIRST THREE THINGS SO…PAY ATTENTION WHEN I SPEAK!

    Reply
  6. arise

    Funny. Good writing.

    Women’s brains have a more developed corpus collosum (connection between the two hemispheres). Their reactions involve the whole brain; they tend to view individual events as part of a pattern, and in relation to the whole. The average man, with a less prominent corpus collosum, is able to compartmentalize left brain (verbal, logical) and right brain (emotional, empathic) activities. That’s how they can say things which women think are dumb, like “sex is just sex” . Left-handed men tend to have a more developed corpus collosum. Kiss a left-handed man today!

    Reply
  7. Bettin EX 5065

    Guys that want to improve there marriage, and show there partner how much they care should follow these steps,men always ask how do i participate and show that I care?? What abetter way than to have a new start and follow these guide lines.

    Reply

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