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I tried the first activity (Activity with TV on low volume with background noise). I found it to be a little frustrating as sometimes it was very difficult to hear what the characters were saying in the show, and a lot of the time it was relevant to the plot. It got easier to do after a couple of episodes but for the first few episodes (especially the first one) it was very hard and frustrating to understand what people were trying to say. It gives you a better appreciation for when people are talking, and it helps you pay attention much better while another person is speaking.

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I tried activity #1 involving the TV.  It went as I expected, it was a little difficult because I'm pretty sure there was more noise around me than suggested. What surprised me was how I was able to understand the plot almost as well without listening very well. I found value in this exercise because it taught me how to pay attention and focus on other aspects of things without sounds. This exercise applies to daily life because sometimes we are required to use visuals for something and use your other senses besides what you hear.

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Following a day of attempting Shafir's listening exercise (#6), I realized how a "positive" mindset can affect an individual on a daily basis. All in all, training your mind is more difficult than it originally seems, but the impact of positive mentality can leave a substantial difference in your day to day life.

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When I attempted Shafir's listening experience (#5), my goal was to stop comparing people to myself or others. I thought it would be a lot more challenging than it was however. I was surprised to think about all of the time we waste on comparing our lives to others. This exercise helped me to realize what is important to think about, or what is worth my time to think about. From doing this, I now know that it's not good for us to be comparing ourselves to others, but rather we should have an opened mind on others, not be too quick to judge, and know that everyone's different and comparing yourselves to others will not do anyone any good.

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I tried activity #1. Yes, this activity did go as expected. I didn't think it would be super challenging, but I did think it was aggravating. I did find value in this exercise. I think this exercise showed no matter how much is going on (in your life, distractions, etc.) you can use always keep trying. At home, at school, in sports, and in anything in life. No matter the distractions or stress in life, always keep focus and keep your eye on your goal. My goal was to tune out all of the distractions and watch the screen as if nothing was different. There were a plentiful amount of distractions in my house but, I tuned out the background noises and kept my attention on the screen. I did exceed my goal. Overall, I liked this project and thought it was very different then other school assignments.

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I attempted the listing activity where you try to stay positive about the people around you. When I attempted the listening activity I found it was surprisingly difficult. Another surprising thing was how often I didn't listen because of opinion of a person. However trying to avoid thinking negatively of other people did help me listen to them better. I could apply this to help listen better in classes or people I don't like.

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When I did the exercise, I realized how well I have been able to tune out the background noise. Normally I am able to turn up the TV to a loud enough volume where I can't hear anything else however when I did this I realized that there is a lot going on around me. This surprised me. I thought it'd be easy to focus on the TV show I was watching at a low volume but it was a lot harder than I expected due to all of the background noise. There were people coughing, cars driving by, and other people talking all while I was trying to watch TV which made it hard to focus. After a couple minutes however I was able to focus on the show and watch it as I normally would which makes this exercise helpful and successful.

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I choose to do the exercise where i try to listen to the TV with noise trying to prevent me from hearing the TV. Shafir's listening exercise was fairly easy and went as expected. I could listen to the TV on a low volume with background noise easily. Nothing really surprised me about the exercise as the exercise is simple and easy to set up. I did find some value in the exercise as it challenged me to try to listen when there was many distractions and loud noises. I would apply this exercise to my academic spaces as sometimes there can be many distractions in a room to draw you away from listening to what the teacher is saying. Also, possible outside noise or a very loud classroom can make it hard to hear the teacher so this experiment shows me how well i can listen in those environments.

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As I attempted to talk to one of my peers about there day and ask questions, I found it difficult to not connect what they were saying to myself. This is what I expected from the exercise, because I knew that it would be difficult to go against my normal conversation habits. It really surprised me that not talking about myself could be so freeing. I found that by truly listening to my friend I was fully immersed in their problems and helping them, and seemed to forget about my own problems for the duration of the conversation. I found this exercise extremely valuable because I think it really helped me to be an overall better friend. My friends deserve my full attention and to really be listened to, and this exercise helped me to do that for them. I will use this in an academic setting by making sure to really listen to my classmates, and take in to consideration what they think rather than just what I think.

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As I attempted one of Shafir 's listening exercises, I did not talk during a family dinner though instead I asked questions and listened to others. It went just as expected, people would talk and then instead of responding with my own opinion, I asked them to expand on theirs. Nothing surprised me about this exercise. I did not find any value in this exercise because one can still respond to a statement to move the conversation without asking a question.  I could apply this exercise possibly when someone else is sharing a thought in classroom because then I would not be interrupting them.

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I chose to do the exercise where the tv volume was really low and I had to really focus on what they were saying on tv. I had to ignore all outside noise and focus completely on the speaker on the tv. This experience was challenging because it was hard to hear what the person was saying most of the time, but it got me to be more alert when someone was talking. This can help me in the future by paying closer attention to the speaker both inside and outside of school, and can help me not daydream as much. Therefore, I will become both a better student and person.

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I chose the first exercise off of Shafir's list. When attempting the exercise, I noticed how important it is to really focus and give your attention to what you are listening to. I would say it did go as expected. I figured that I would easily become tempted to turn the volume up on my computer. There were a lot of background noises at the time that I was doing the exercise. I got a little distracted but I was still able to watch the show and understand what the characters were saying and what was going on in the show. This exercise showed me how important it is to give all of my attention to what i'm listening to in order to take away the most and really understand what i'm hearing and listening to.

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At the beginning of the exercise, I was quite doubtful about the value of doing this. A lot of Shafir's exercises seemed easier said then done. I decided on attempting one about prejudices dislikes. Through the process of only a few days, I started to realize how many negative thoughts were invading my head at the same time along with how I did nothing to stop them. I let the negative thoughts stay there, questioning my morality. Making an effort to rid myself of these negative thoughts and find the positive in every situation felt natural, almost as if I had been doing it my whole life. That was when I understood that throughout time, I have lost the meaning in outright being kind for whatever reason. I know that through this mindset, I will be able to go way farther in life.

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I chose number 5 off of the list. This came into play during an orchestra camp on Saturday I was having negative thoughts as to how I would perform. Not only was I playing in an orchestra, I deeded to perform a solo for seating arrangements. I kept thinking that I would mess up, and be placed in the far back. I decided to imagine myself performing. I had imagined that I had wowed the judges and earned first chair. With that positive mindset with me, I went all out and played everything perfectly. I had even gotten first chair.

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At the beginning of the exercise it all seemed pointless to me, but as I started to turn the volume down on the TV I realized that there was much more to it. As the volume got lower and I started to really focus on the dialogue of the characters I noticed all of the sounds and background noise such as the birds chirping outside, and the dishwasher running. In due time it became increasingly difficult to focus with various sources of white noise in the background. I noticed that this exercise proved to me that listening has many more aspects to it than just using your hearing sense to detect noise.

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My exercise required me to turn down the television low while noise was in the background and try to keep listening to the television. I thought that the listening exercise was a little more difficult than expected, but helpful. It was hard to tune out distractions at times, so I focused on acquiring my best hearing. I found value in the exercise because now in the future I can use the exercise whenever I need to really focus or listen. During tests I can use the exercise to regain concentration when I become bored or tired. I will now be able to use these skills to become a more engaged listener and learner.

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The listening exercise I tried did go as expected. I knew that finding one positive thing I like about a person who I don't necessarily like would help, but it didn't completely resolve the issue. I did find value in the exercise because I might not have thought differently without the exercise. At the same time, I do sometimes try to come up with valid explanations for why someone is doing something that is upsetting me and that can help a lot. I don't think I really needed the exercise to think differently, but it pushed me to think differently when I might not have wanted to. I can apply this exercise to the rest of my life and academic spaces in many different ways. If I disagree with something a person is saying or I don't like the way someone is speaking to me, I can always try to think about where they are coming from and try to find at least one thing I like or respect about what is being said.

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I did the exercise where you turned down the volume to the TV and tried to focus on what the people on the TV were saying. When I tried this exercise I found myself being very easily distracted by everything else going on around me and unable to fully understand what the characters were saying. I expected this exercise to go like this because when I had to think more about listening to the TV I was no longer able to multitask and listen to the sounds around me as well as do other things. This exercise helped me realize that when something is easy for me to process I can process multiple things at once but when I have to put more thought into something I can only process one thing at a time.

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I did the TV exercise and I ended up having the results that I thought I'd get. I turned the volume all the way down and tried to still listen to it as the other sounds in my house started to overpower what I was trying to pay attention to. Then, once I turned the volume back up, it was very easy to hear and understand because I had gotten used to focusing really hard in order to hear.

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I did the Tv exercise which was to listen to tv at a low volume and try to focus on the sound with other background noises going on around you. When I read it the first time, I thought I wouldn't have been able to hear the tv and I would be focused on the background noises. When I did the exercise, I really focused on the sound coming out of the tv and watched for a bit. At first I couldn't hear it, but as I started watching more, I tuned out the other noises and was only hearing the sound from the tv. I liked the exercise because it made me really pay attention to what I was listening instead of just turning up the volume on the tv.