Life Shift - 5 Express Your Inner Self

Shifting your life involves the challenge to take ownership of your needs and wants. We become responsible for creating our own destiny by becoming vulnerable for expressing clear boundaries and expectations with others.  

Writing life action goals tells our inner brains, others and the universe our intentions for the steps we plan to follow for achieving what our hearts desire for claiming our own happiness. Taking responsibility for your direction fights off the effects of stress and the extreme tendencies to move toward depression and anxiety. Openly express your inner core insights and tools for effectively sharing your thoughts and feelings with those around you.

Dr. Will Meek (2013) reviews the essential components of communication for highlighting all the places an interaction can go wrong. For human communication, Meek presents the key pieces of communication as a sender, a receiver, and the message. 

He then takes the messaging part one step further for describing how humans code and decode interactions around speech and nonverbal forms of communication. The receiver then interprets (decodes) the words and nonverbals, with everybody assuming they are all on the same page. Except everybody learned different understandings for what words symbolizes. And different nonverbals complicate the interaction through different understandings of what body language, hand gesture, eye roll, tone inflection, and rate of speech is supposed to convey.

Dr. Meek considers all communication, without exception, as a two-person problem. And thus, a two-person solution, or skill improvement, approach is needed to decrease missed meanings behind thought and feelings expressed. For the sender, Meek recommends be aware of opportunities to make assumptions and thereby the need to slow down and choose your words wisely.  

He highlights the need for the sender to think about the receiver's point of view or background for taking into consideration how the receiver will decode the message expressed. For the person decoding an incoming message, Meek suggests the receiver to “check-in" for clarifying if what is being heard is correct.  

Your focus for today is to commit to taking ownership of the messages you want to send. If something is important in what you are sharing...ask the receiver what is being heard. Also ask what is being felt or experienced to the meaning behind the interaction. You want your partner to not only hear the words but the emotional aspect of what you are sharing as well. When someone is sharing with you, provide the sender with feedback and clarifying questions to see if you are taking in the intended message. Summarize what you heard and what the emotional impact of the message meant to you.