Skills To Improve Communication

I am going to let you in on a very valuable secret, Skills To Improve Communication when it comes to having communication that counts.  If you want to improve your relationship with your partner, memorize this sentence and use it.

Learn to acknowledge your partner’s feelings instead of trying to fix their problem.

Sometimes when our partner tries to tell us about a problem, we immediately start in with, “You should…” or “What I would do is…”

In our eagerness to help, we jump right over the most important thing:  acknowledging how they feel.  At best, your partner is only partially ready to hear your ideas at this point.  Worst-case scenario, they feel like you’ve shut them down.  To open their ears to your suggestions, take just a moment and ask yourself,”How is my partner feeling right now?”  Then say this to him or her: “You sound frustrated,” or “you seem sad about that.”  These are simple yet very powerful observations.

The reason this skill works so well is because it is human nature to feel understood.  So the next time your partner starts to tell you about his or her bad day at work, acknowledge without jumping in to fix!  Try it and watch your communication thrive!

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