Understanding Others Through Healthy Communication People tend to respond to what others say with their own thoughts. This is a natural part of the ebb and flow of conversation. However, it often means they aren’t listening. Even though we all “know” how to listen we often do a poor job of it. True listening takes effort and practice. How will you …
What Makes a Good Relationship Work?
There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. ~ Kahlil Gibran What do you think is the most important ingredient for a successful relationship? Would you say love? How about respect? Maybe you think it’s sex? Is it communication or commitment? Yes, all …
Emotional Intelligence – Learn to Monitor Your Emotions
Emotion is thought materialized in our physical being. Emotion is both the joy and the bane of our humanity. Life without it would be bleak and colorless, yet it defies and distorts our comprehension. This reminds me of the old saying, “Can’t live with them, and can’t live without them.” Knowing emotion is a fact of life doesn’t solve, for most …
The “Adventure of Life” is to Learn – Be the Hero
The big question is whether you’re going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure…the adventure of the hero – the adventure of being alive. ~ Joseph Campbell Why is saying “no,” even to those we love best, so easy to do? Why is saying “yes” so difficult? The questions: “What about me, what about what I want?” appear to …
Effective Communication Tips – Speak Respectfully & Directly
Let your speech be always full of grace, seasoned with salt. ~ Colossians 4:6 Have you ever started an innocent conversation with someone only to have it disintegrate into anger or frustration? We sometimes try to pinpoint where it all went wrong; but a more useful starting point may be, “What can I do to prevent it?” Other than those lopsided encounters …
Power of Acceptance and Gratitude – Feel Freedom in Relationships
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. ~ Abraham Lincoln: Letter to H.L. Pierce, April 6, 1859 Relationships are sometimes a quagmire of emotion, misunderstandings, and unmet expectations. Rather than feeling free and joyful, we often find ourselves feeling trapped and frustrated. I sometimes hear people lament, “I was …
Change Yourself Change the World
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. ~ Robert Frost Every now and then, someone writes a book, prophesies a future, or reveals a truth of nature with startling insight and pristine clarity – books such as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the prophets Moses or …
Key Elements to Active Listening: Effective Communication
For when you come to think of it, the only way to love a person is not … to coddle them and bring them soup when they’re sick, but by listening to them and seeing and believing in the god, in the poet in them. ~ Brenda Ueland The first element of communication, speaking, is impossible without the second, listening; to be a …
Being Present in the Moment
… striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man. ~ Victor Frankl We all constantly deal with an abundance of information, both external and internal. We hear and feel the voices of purpose, anger, sorrow, motivation, greed, joy, fear, hunger, illness, health, intuition, sex – and these are intermingled with a second cacophony of …
Clarity Life Design: 6 Steps to Clarity
Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. ~ Rumi Be clear in speech. Clear speech and sincere listening are as essential to one another as giving is to receiving; without one the circuit is broken and what remains is potential rather than realization. Together they lead to …