By: Dr. Cheryl Bauman
Put down your devices and talk!
Words of encouragement contain healing power. Improving your ability to communicate effectively through the spoken word will help you to develop and maintain healthy, positive relationships. Making the choice to improve your relationships through the spoken word will situate you on the road to successfully achieving a life filled with purpose, balance and happiness.
Tip #1 - Decide to Speak Encouraging Words Every Chance You Get!
Speaking words of encouragement into a person's life only takes a few brief seconds out of the 86 400 seconds that total an entire day. This small investment of time can translate into a very large return in your relationships with others! The positive impact your words can have on someone's day, and quite possibly their life, is profound. Paying it forward with words of encouragement is all about your attitude and mindset. What you think and say is at the very core of your belief and value system.
If you truly believe you can make a difference in the lives around you, you are then ready for the challenge of finding at least one person every day to speak positive messages to, such as "You are important" or "I care". By making a commitment to forming the habit of speaking words of encouragement, your relationships will inevitably flourish and grow to new levels.
Tip #2 - Eliminate the Need to Always Be Right!
Many of us are under a great deal of stress. Stress is causing us to say and to do things that we would not normally say or do. Always needing to be right is stressful, and it arouses corresponding negative emotions. By living in a state of chronic stress our immune systems will eventually be compromised. However, it is proven that giving up the need to always be right and seeking forgiveness is related to positive health outcomes.
Decide today to give up the right to always be right! Humility goes a long way towards healing our physical bodies as well as restoring a sense of trust in our relationships.
Tip #3 - Don't Be Afraid to Say You're Sorry!
Some of the most powerful words to use in healing our relationships are: "I am sorry"; "I messed up"; and "please forgive me". Relationships can and are ruined due to our inability and unwillingness to Just Say It: "I am sorry" and to seek forgiveness.
Admittedly, we all make mistakes. We all say and do the wrong things. This is human nature. When you know you have acted wrongly, it is best to truthfully acknowledge what you have done, be remorseful, and be genuinely sorry. We are wired to want restoration and to want to feel worthwhile in our relationships. In fact, restoration in our relationships is directly related to increases in social and emotional stability.
If your actions or words have caused harm, take courage, step out and utter these powerful healing words, "I am sorry".
Tip #4 - Take a "Time-out" from Electronic Devices!
Setting boundaries on the amount of time spent on electronic devices while in the presence of others is vital to maintaining healthy, wholesome, interactive relationships.
Ask yourself, has your form of communicating with others using modern technology now become less authentic? As a result of the convenience of social media, has your communication focus now gone to quantity instead of quality? Has social media actually made you less social?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, think about what steps you can take to ensure that you continue to maintain quality face-to-face communication and remain social with others. You can decide to form the habit of purposefully putting aside electronic devices in situations such as eating dinner together as a family or while you are out on a date, committing to not using your electronic device for the entire evening, unless it is a dire emergency. If you are a supervisor in the workplace, plan to have more face-to-face meetings with your employees instead of always communicating through e-mail. In these instances, you will have the opportunity to form face-to-face personal relationships with people where you can see them, hear their tone of voice and observe their non-verbal cues.
Willingly commit to forming these habits, and watch both your professional and personal relationships improve in areas that you never imagined possible!
It is important to nurture feelings of belonging in self and others and this begins with your attitude and the choice of the words that you use when speaking. Understanding the powerful gift that flows through words of encouragement will unlock the true potential that can be found in your relationships with others.
Dr. Cheryl Bauman is the author of a new book entitled Just Say It! 4 Phrases That Will Change Your Life FOREVER! Dr. Bauman is a gifted communicator and shares this gift with others through speaking, researching, and writing. She received her Doctor of Education from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia and was awarded the ACEL Queensland Research in Educational Leadership and Management Award. Dr. Cheryl Bauman owns a consulting company, teaches for the Faculty of Education Departments at several Canadian universities and works on research projects for an international university. Cheryl resides in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with her husband Pino and their daughter Sara. You can e-mail Dr. Cheryl Bauman at [email protected] or visit her website at www.justsayit.today .