It’s no secrete that communication is an important aspect in our daily lives. We learn from a young age that we should communicate our wants and needs clearly and effectively. But to some it’s still a surprise that you should be consistently communicating.
Yes, your body language along with sending the right facial gestures can be very important in certain situations, but it is just as important as emotionally expressing yourself spontaneously. Our generation is very odd and although the amount of networking technologies continues to increase, making our world smaller and smaller, we are forgetting how to communicate with people in front of us properly and effectively.We avoid communication entirely in a lot of circumstances. Why is it that we avoid eye contact while walking through narrow hallways, coffee shops, or on the bus? This is something that I don’t quite understand (and maybe I’m bias, since I am a Communication major after all). No matter the reason for it, this shouldn’t be the case. Stop looking at your phone and look around you.
Make conversation with the person sitting next to you on the bus, the stranger, or that girl you happened to have had classes with two semesters ago. Its so obvious that you both recognize each other, so why don’t you say hi or project a friendly smile?Let me leave you with this. You probably want to communicate with people more than you do, even if its nonverbal communication. And maybe your instinct is to start a conversation with people you don’t know on a daily basis. You should do so if thats the case. Do what you feel.
Did you know that not allowing free expression can take a toll on health and cognitive functioning? People who are less expressive experience a higher level of internal physiological arousal. Not to mention, experiments show short-term effects of emotional suppression with negative effects on cardiovascular activity, blood pressure, and memory for stimuli presented during the suppression of emotion (Knapp, Hall, Horgan). Yeah, I know. Crazy. And in turn, these negative effects will most likely cause other frustrations. So, be human. Communicate with one more person than you did yesterday. Reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while. You never know what kind of valuable and useful conversations you could have today. Harness that potential energy and make use of it.
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
Bernard M. Baruch
Have a great day!
