Barriers to Active Listening

Active Listening in general is not a easy task to engage in. So there are barriers we may come across on a daily basis with this. There are a total of ten barriers mentioned in the text. However, I just want to cover a few that I felt I can pertain to the most and what I have seen amongst others in a small group as well. The first barrier is lack of interest. Last semester, I took a class on person and society which was a sociology course where every wednesday we would have answered journal questions from the previous night's reading and would come to class and discuss it in a circle. We applied what we learned to our everyday lives and I loved it because we could vent about things others could pertain to as well. There were some individuals who would never participate either because they were shy or they had a lack of interest in what was being discussed. I always found that as a barrier to active listening. Another barrier which I feel I do while active listening on a daily basis with friends, or individuals in general is ambushing which thinking and wiling to react to the individual we are listening to while they are talking instead of not thinking or acting or responding at all. I found these two barriers helpful and useful because active listening is something I know I need to work in definitely because I feel at times while someone else is talking, I'm already thinking of what to say next. So for a little while now, I have been working on trying to improve my active listening skills and to overcome the barriers to active listening.