ARE YOU LISTENING? Keys to Successful Communication

When most people think of communicating, they visualize talking and getting a point across in a clear, effective manner. Speaking or writing to communicate a message is only part of effective communication. The complementary part of communication is listening.

Poor listeners, underdeveloped listeners, are frequently unable to separate their own needs and interests from those of others. Everything they hear comes with an automatic bias: How does this affect me? What can I say next to get things my way? Poor listeners are more likely to interrupt: either they have already jumped to conclusions about what you are saying, or it is just of no interest to them. They attend to the surface of the words rather than listening or clarifying what’s “between the lines.” When they speak, they are typically in one of two modes. Either they are "downloading"—regurgitating information and pre-formed opinions—or they are in debate mode, waiting for the first sign that you don’t think like them so they can jump in to set you straight.

Deep Listening involves listening, from a deep, receptive, and caring place in oneself. It is listening that is generous, empathic, supportive, accurate, and trusting. Trust here does not imply agreement, but the trust that whatever others say, regardless of how well or poorly it is said, comes from something true in their experience. Deep Listening is an ongoing practice of suspending self-oriented, reactive thinking and opening one’s awareness to the unknown.

Discover deep listening

Start with your next conversation: Notice when your mind moves into distracting thoughts, judgments, memories, or interpretations; when you want to say something; when you're trying hard to listen; or when anything takes you out of the moment. Don't judge yourself, feel guilty, or try to figure out why you weren't listening or for how long--just acknowledge it, let it go and gently bring yourself back to listening.

Here are three more tips:

Have a quiet mind. Relax and let yourself melt into that place where you can just be in the present.
Have a genuine sense of interest: What is it about this person that I really want to know?
Be aware of the feeling between you and the other person. If it's heading toward judgment, irritation or impatience, then you've moved out of the moment and out of deep listening. Bring your awareness back to the feeling of genuine interest in the other person.
Deep listening offers the following benefits.
It's calming. It enables us to step outside our problems and clear our minds of personal thoughts. In a sense, it's like meditation--the goal is to let go of thoughts, just let them drift away.
It leads to feelings of connection, caring and compassion. Deep listening allows for a heart-to-heart connection. We more accurately hear what another person is saying--not just the words, but the intent of the words. Seeing past the defenses and external behavior, we experience the other person's true self and discover that it's not unlike ours. This feeling of unity, of non-separation, is the wellspring of compassion.
It helps us to communicate. Deep listening creates true understanding. If people can communicate, they can begin to live and work together more harmoniously, uniting hearts and minds. And that leads to cooperation, and connected relationships.

A LESSON IN LOVING – DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

The thought of having a relationship is exciting, isn't it? Falling in love, romantic dinners, and passionate sex.  

If you’re like me I really thought that simply being in love was all it took to make a relationship last forever.  But what I’ve gradually learned over the last 3 years is that maintaining a happy fulfilling long-term relationship requires certain skills. 

The same situation exists for millions of other people who start out deeply in love and over time, the love they once shared gradually disappears.  It is so sad that we spend our entire lives getting an education in all kinds of other subjects, except in the one area of our lives that has so much impact and importance – relationships.

Knowing what I know now, I understand the reason why the majority of people who fall in love and then start a relationship usually end in disaster.  From my training & research, one of the variables you can do something about is the process of learning the Dynamics of Relationship Skills &Management.  These are learned skills. 

Anybody with desire, commitment and the unending willingness to learn can master this art and science:

• SELF OWNERSHIP - If partners are willing to assume ownership of their feelings and behaviors, a strong healthy foundation is created. If either partner feels bad, they are willing to embrace that feeling as THEIRS, and will communicate that feeling to the other partner as an "I" message. such as, " I am tired, angry, etc."

• GOOD LISTENING BEHAVIOR - Good listening creates an atmosphere of mutuality, respect, self-control, and communication simplicity. In relationships, good listening requires clearing one's mind and hearing the other's utterances with- out any inner clutter.

• EFFECTIVE NEEDS NEGOTIATION - Each partner has their own needs that inevitably will differ from the other partner. This occurs even in highly compatible relationships. Effectiveness in gratifying these needs differences involves the old-fashioned art of compromise. Compromise allows each partner's needs to be gratified in a smaller or postponed measure for the good of maintaining relationship harmony.

• ABILITY TO STAY IN THE PRESENT MOMENT - One of the biggest sources of relationship difficulty is the inability to stay in the present moment. Distortions in the communications process are often caused by the listener contaminating the process with their inner historical issues. Problems they encountered in past relationships influence their behavior with their current partner.

• TOLERANCE OF DIFFERENCES - Any difference between two people is a potential for conflict. Conflict breaks out when needs negotiation fail and tolerance is absent. No two people are alike, even the highly compatible. The most functional relationships strive to neutralize as many incompatibilities between the partners as possible, compromising the differences when possible, and tolerating the differences when not.

• ON GOOD BEHAVIOR FOREVER - A garden needs sunlight, water, nutrients, and bug maintenance, and so do relationships! Often people get the crazy idea that relationships are self- maintaining, and without the necessary active, ongoing care, the garden-relationship withers and dies. We should always be on good behavior in our relationships. Why would we not be! The sunlight, water, and nutrients of good behavior are tact, politeness, and gratitude.
  
  *Tact means thinking about our words and behavior before they are "released" by us; particularly how it will affect our partner.

* Politeness refers somewhat differently to the formal respect and importance we give to our partner, such as please, and thank you.

* Gratitude is an attitude that expresses our appreciation not just for our partner's efforts, but particularly for who they are, and for the radiance they bring to the relationship. Politeness is saying "thank you"; gratitude is being thankful.

• GOLDEN SILENCE - In deep relationships, words are often essential, but at times, words can be COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. The times when Golden Silence should prevail is when words and facts will cause the partner to suffer, and also times when silence can be used to prevent the upward spiraling of conflict, such as a "time out". Silence, however, should never be used as a weapon of chilly anger, withdrawal, or rejection.

• NON-REACTIVITY - Non-reactivity is a special relationship skill that is dependent on one's temperament, communication style, frustration tolerance, listening ability, insight, and humility. It is a challenging skill for some people to develop. Partners who are competitive, immature, litigious, aggressive, or addicted to being "right" are at the highest risk for reactivity. This skill needs ongoing monitoring and perfection, so calmness versus conflict will prevail.

• ABILITY TO INTERNALIZE AND WORK THROUGH CONFLICT - When we are able to solve our problems internally, we sometimes feel some personal discomfort, but we avoid the potentially greater discomfort of drawing our partner into a problem that may be entirely our own. This can create considerable simplicity, when it is either unnecessary or nonproductive to involve our partner in personal conflict resolution. For instance endlessly coming home to someone and complaining repeatedly about the same problem without fixing it can cause eventual damage.

• READINESS TO PROVIDE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT - Firm relationships are maintained when it is clear to both parties that each person is committed to providing the interventions needed to help the other when necessary and appropriate. This indicates active caring that increases comfort and safety between people.

• SENSITIVITY TO PARTNER'S FEELINGS - Sensitivity to the other partner's feelings provides emotional support, but is a far more ongoing state NOT CONTINGENT on a problem situation, but rather a demonstration and commitment because of the other person's importance to us.

A successful relationship is the fruit of caring attention, but don't be hard on yourself when falling short of your ideals. Practice makes perfect...

Best of luck!

adapted from the Relationship Handbook by Jan Maizler, MSW, LCSW

To Take It Personally Or Not?

How many reactions do you have a day about other people’s behaviors, words or actions?  I know  I can spend way too much time telling myself stories about what other people say and do.  What about you?  Do you spend a lot of time judging and talking about other’s behaviors?

When we take what others do seriously, we are agreeing with their perception or behavior. It’s a choice we each make every day whether to focus on the positive or negative actions of others. 

Because this is easier said then done I'll share with you the four strategies I use to NOT take things personally:

1. Give the benefit of the doubt. If you have a habit of taking things personally, it means that you're apt to assume someone is directing some form of aggression towards you specifically, when they might be just joking around, or having a bad day. It might be your instinct to react, or curl up into a ball emotionally, but pause for a second. Maybe it's not about you. Learn how to gain control of your emotions.

2. Refocus your attention. When you take things personally, you shift your attention from what they said or did to how you feel. Unless you move on from that point, it's likely that you'll ruminate, and the negative feeling will be amplified. Instead, focus again on the other person.

• Look at how the person treats others. They might tease, pick on, or even insult everyone they cross paths with. Some people are just antagonistic like that.
• Consider their insecurities. Could they feel threatened by you in some way? If so, don't feel bad for being your awesome self. Think about how you can help this person feel better about themselves.
• Keep in mind that the other person probably has poor communication and emotional management skills. Imagine that there's an inner child acting out, because the person hasn't learned how to deal with things in a mature way. It's much easier to be patient and feel compassionate when you visualize a learning child at the helm of their behavior.

3. Remind yourself that you don't need anyone's approval. If you're especially sensitive to people's behavior towards you, to the extent that you regularly overreact, it might be because you've got a strong radar for rejection. If you pick up on any kind of displeasure, you worry that you're doing something wrong, and you want to fix it eagerly. But just because someone isn't happy with you doesn't mean you've done something wrong. In many cases, it means that person isn't happy with themselves, and expects you to fill in the blanks (which is impossible).

4. Stop taking compliments personally, too. If you base your self-worth on how much people compliment and validate you, then you're basically allowing others to decide how you feel about yourself. If someone compliments you, it's no more personal than a direct insult. They're simply calling it how they see it, and that may or may not be accurate--only you can be the judge of that. So if someone is positive towards you, that doesn't make you a better person, it makes them a better person, because they're taking the time to be supportive and encouraging. Your value, your self-worth remains unchanged, because it's something that comes from within.

When we decide to take personally, what others do to us only adds more stress to our lives.  All that negative energy that we give attention to, when in fact, we do not have any control over. Maybe we think by thinking, talking, discussing or complaining about others, we can change the behavior.  Even if we share our reactions with the other, we have no ability to change it. So why take it personally?  Instead, allow the other person to live with their choices.

When I decided to take the journey towards learning to let go of what others do, I started to relax more and had more energy to live my own life.  Reacting to others takes a lot of energy and I don’t want to give over to others my precious assets – my time and my well-being.

It’s all about choosing what path we want to take in life…

Let me know where you are in your life around what other people do and whether you take it personally. Do you think it’s possible to let go of taking personally what other people do?  

  

It's Summer - Jump Into The Dating Pool!

Looking to spice up your single life a little?, add some romance?... or maybe find that perfect love connection this summer? Cool! - jump in.

But wait, first let me help you avoid the ‘cold water’ shock. Whether you want to dip your toe or dive in all at once, remember, you should take time to prepare yourself BEFORE entering the pool. I want you swim not sink here. So, jot down these vital points

1. Get help.
This is of vital importance as it’s infinitely harder to reach goals solo. There will be days when you need encouragement.  So get a like-minded positive friend to help you or a personal mentor/coach.  Your success rate can only SKYROCKET when you do so.

Here are some things a great coach will help you address:

• Getting crystal clear about what you want and what you don’t want.
• Overcoming obstacles or issues that stand in the way of your success.
• Putting together a step-by-step action plan based on your comfort zone.
• Inspiring you, keeping you on track and lifting you up when you are low.
• Providing wisdom to help you get the best out of your dating experience and help you avoid unnecessary pitfalls.

2. There are plenty of fish.
Essential to finding someone to date is your attitude.  If you are coming from a place of lack; 'there's no one to meet', 'all the good ones are taken', then that's exactly what you'll find. REMEMBER - Like attracts Like.  The Law of Attraction suggests that single people can maximize the likelihood of getting what they want in their lives by planting seeds for the future they want.

• Visualize what you want and feel it - experience the emotions as though the vision were REAL!
• Reinforce your positive thoughts and control and stop any negative thoughts.
• Be doubt-free.  All you need to do is expect it.  Act like you already have it.  Be grateful and always expect your desires.

This information has saved people I’ve worked with from wasting precious time with incompatible people, timewasters and bad dates! Following these points will greatly increase your chances of finding a wonderful new partner or friend who suits you in less time.  It may sound a bit technical, but nothing beats a little preparation.

I would love to hear your feedback and any questions you may have. 


Wishing you a warm dive… or a pleasant dip!

If they are stupid enough to walk away, be wise enough to let them go…

You will save yourself a lot of heartache.
You will maintain a sense of dignity.
You will both be better off.

Letting go. It is difficult for us in so many ways and on so many levels (just ask me - it's been a big lesson of mine). Yet, life calls upon us to do it, over and over again. Letting go is part of our growth process. We cannot move on to the new while continuing to cling to the old.

There come times, in the context of love and romance, when we must learn to let go. Maybe the relationship was not meant to be: perhaps it was hurtful to us, or perhaps it was hindering the personal growth of one or both partners. In this case, even when there may still be feelings of passion, or attraction, or just the comfort of the familiar, we must be strong in letting go of something that is unhealthy for us. …

So, how do we do it? Letting go of a relationship involves letting go of:

1. It has to be a clean break. Don’t tell yourself you’re going to call him one last time or give it just one more try. Don’t keep calling up friends and asking them if he’s already seeing someone new or if she’s as depressed as you are. If you are serious about letting go of your relationship you have to carve out a new existence, one that has no room for the old.
   
2. Don’t dwell on what might-have-been. Letting go of a relationship involves recognizing that it was not meant to be and that you have to set new goals and build new dreams. Avoid having unrealistic expectations or hopes that you may get back together. Or that he would change and perhaps become the person you want him to be or your problems will just get sorted out. Realize that the relationship has run its course and it is time to let go.
   
3. Fear. If you want to truly let go of a relationship, you have to forget your apprehensions and worries about being alone and how you’ll cope. And you also have to learn to trust again. Not just someone else but also yourself and your instincts. One, two or even more broken relationships doesn’t mean that we should close ourselves off from loving again.

When you are ready to let go of a relationship and reconcile yourself to keeping the past in the past, you will experience an enormous weight being lifted off your shoulders and a sense of accomplishment (ask me again ;-) that you have come out of the whole experience a much stronger person. Yhea!!!

FOR A DATING LIFE THAT’S FREE FROM DISASTER - GET YOUR DATING INSURANCE PACKAGE

If you want a dating life that's free from disaster, you need to invest in a little insurance. As hurricane victims know, it does no good to buy insurance after the storm has wreaked everything.

Here's 3 ways to get your own dating insurance package together:

1. Be ready. Some folks approach life as if they were jumping into a cold body of water: They squeeze their eyes shut, hold their nose and jump. Who knows if they know how to swim? It's far better to go into dating with your eyes open and your senses sharp. Take some time and review your current situation. What needs attention? Your physical self? Your surroundings? Your fears? Your career? Your relationship skills? Taking care of yourself first will help ensure your future success in love.

2. Get a life. Nothing is more unattractive than someone with nothing to offer. While having space in your life for a partner is important, too much space will seem overwhelming to another. It's not up to a future partner to give you the life you haven't made for yourself. Get out and get active!

3.Enhance your good luck. Many singles are so discouraged about the process of finding love that they can't help but feel unlucky. And most folks feel that there is little they can do to influence Lady Luck. But research has found that is not so. What you think about comes about - good -- or bad. Taking steps to be the kind of person you want to attract will help you find the best of the best. Above all, expect good fortune in your life. What have you got to lose? More bad luck?

If you are still not sure of your ability to adequately insure yourself from dating failure, why not take advantage of my experience? I want you to get what you say you want: love!

Different relationship - same problems?! What you can do to get out of this rut

Are you baffled that you keep finding yourself having the same type of relationship problems, over and over again, with different partners? For some unknown reason, does every partner not quite have what it takes to give you the love you truly desire? Does every relationship ultimately ends up in the same stale place, missing something essential, or repeating a unhealthy pattern of distance, unavailability, neglect or even abuse?

The lesson is that nothing will change in our lives until we change from the inside out. Our lives are a perpetual treadmill of opportunities for learning, constantly coming our way, again and again, until we heed the call and shift our attitudes, perceptions, feelings and/or behavior. So if you feel stuck on an endless treadmill of unfulfilled relationships, or no relationships at all, look inside for the answers.

Who and what are you attracting into your life? What gratification do you get from reliving these behaviors and feelings over and over again? What needs to shift inside of you before you start getting a different result? What lesson have you not learned yet? What keeps coming up again and again in every relationship, or every attempt at trying to start a relationship? What is the universe trying so hard to tell you, that you just don't understand?

Whenever we get stuck in patterns that we don’t like or that are unhealthy for us, we have to learn how to break the cycle. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t learn from history you will repeat it.” Since we cannot change someone else’s behavior, we must examine our own patterns in picking the wrong person. In doing this, we can begin to conceptualize healthy relationships and hold that as our new standard.

Unhealthy Relationships:
1. We mistake love for physical attraction, neediness and the need to rescue or be rescued. (Examine how your desperation effects your perception)
2. We choose emotionally and physically unavailable people in relationships. (Examine your fear of intimacy)
3. We pick people who treat us poorly by being punishing, critical, controlling or demeaning. (Examine your low self-esteem.)
4. We lose interest in our own personal interests and activities and become enmeshed with the one person and their interests. (Examine your boundaries.)
5. We stay in and return to unhealthy relationships. (Examine your fear of loneliness.)
6. We begin sexual relationships or become emotionally attached without really knowing someone. (Examine your boundaries.)
7. We fantasize about who we think someone is and then are crushed when they fall short of that fantasy. (Examine what is reality vs. fantasy)

Healthy Relationships:
1. When something is wrong we can talk about it.
2. We encourage each other to be better people.
3. Having separate interests and friends isn’t a threat.
4. We can be vulnerable about feelings with some degree of safety.
5. We can handle difficult situations as a team.
6. We both are dedicated to spending quality time with each other.
7. Trust builds through our growing capacity to be honest with one another.

Many of us cannot see our own blind spots in relationships, and need the guidance of others to help us through the darkness. Fortunately, when we are ready to learn, to listen, and to discover the truth about ourselves and our relationships, we have many more options than trial and error.