Teaching active listening skills to other groups on campus through CogWell is very different from actually practicing it myself. Earlier this year I completed a week-long active listening project for my Positive Psychology class, where I intentionally put my phone away during conversations with my friends and focused on being fully present. Although I work to teach others about active listening, the project made me realize how often I found myself doing things that distracted me from...

I practice active listening every day as a medical assistant. In a fast-paced office environment, it is easy to sometimes lose sight of the importance of patients as individuals and as people while focusing on their healthcare. However, I make a conscious effort to listen actively to each patient, and it has greatly impacted how I see care. By giving these patients space to explain their feelings, whether related to their health problems or not, they often feel much more at ease in what is...

My favorite memory and most impactful activity as a member of CogWell was the first training I helped lead. I walked into a room filled with around 100 freshman-year nursing students, somewhat daunted by what was to come. While I knew each activity in our Listen Up workshop and was confident I was able to assist in each of these while sharing my own experiences with CogWell, I was nervous when we started our presentation. However, once it began, I felt more comfortable in sharing my own...