Communication

Consider other people’s feelings

• When you communicate with others try to figure out why a person is talking, think about what the other person is feeling.
• Think about any situations that may be affecting their emotions and how what they are saying to you affects you.

Be Considerate of Others!

Be Considerate

Consider your own feelings

Just as other peoples’ feelings can affect the message they’re trying to send, your own feelings can get in the way of your communication as well.

• When you have a strong feeling, pay attention to that emotion and try not to let it get in the way of your message.
• Both positive emotions, like happiness, and negative emotions, like anger, can make communication difficult.

Your Own Feelings

For example, if you’re really happy about something, you might agree to do things that you shouldn’t or wouldn’t normally agree to do.

Or if you’re angry, you might say something mean to someone who has nothing to do with your being angry.

Empathy is the ability to understand and relate to the feelings of someone else.

• You can relate to those feelings you recognized in other people.
• You can think about how you would want to be talked to or what you would like other people to say or do if you were in that situation.

Have empathy

For example, if you notice that a friend seems stressed, you should try to find out why. If they tells you they are stressed out because they don't have a lot of time to finish a big project, you can empathize with them by putting yourself in their shoes. That means, you can imagine yourself in this situation and you can understand what your friend must be feeling.

Operate on trust

Good communication requires you to build trust between yourself and the person with whom you’re communicating. You can earn the trust of others by sending nonverbal cues that match your words.

• Trust your instincts when it comes to reading peoples’ emotions and nonverbal cues.
• If you don’t, you will find yourself questioning the person you’re talking to, and you could develop feelings of mistrust for no reason.

Trust

For example, shaking your head no while you’re saying yes will send a confusing message. The difference between your verbal and body language could cause the other person to question whether or not you’re telling the truth. Make sure that you always tell the truth, and you can avoid these confusing situations.

Recognize Misunderstandings

A misunderstanding happens when two people think they are on the same page about something, but in reality they are thinking two different things.

• Misunderstandings are often caused by confusing emotions.

Misunderstanding

For example, if your friend is upset about something, they might talk to you as if they are angry with you, even if they are not. It’s tempting to walk away from this type of conversation feeling like your friend is mad at you, but this would just result in a misunderstanding. Instead, recognize that your friend is upset about something else and probably didn’t mean to take their anger out on you.

Lets review!

Examples of Non Verbal Communication

Body Language