It does take practice, zig, but I think once you're more aware of it, it will come easier to you. I have some training in mediation and I have used some of those techniques well in my interactions with customer service reps when things go wrong rather then going crazy on them. This includes always thanking them for their help even if they weren't necessarily that helpful and asking questionins in a neutral, open way like, "Can you tell me more about that?" rather than demanding an answer or dictating the direction of the conversation.
Now that I think about it, part of our training was learning how to validate. I always struggled with that in practice. It's not natural, but if you can slow down your brain to process the information that comes in, and add in that step before you jump to the next thing (i.e. what you think should be done), it might help.
