Discovering the Unknown About Yourself

An Exercise to discover yourself

The more you can get to know yourself, the better you can communicate, thereby, minimizing distortions and misunderstandings in relationships with friends, family, and co-workers. As you expand the known part of yourself, it decreases your blind and hidden areas. This leads to an ability to make conscious decisions about how you are going to live. It helps you create better relationships.

This exercise can help you learn more about your blind areas. There are times when you experience an event or interaction which you cannot let go. You have feelings you do not understand and react in ways that confuse you. This exercise will help you sort out the event and lead you to a better understanding of yourself. Continue reading

6 Tools to Improve Communication

6 Tools to Improve CommunicationHave you ever been in a meaningful conversation and not known how to continue? Perhaps you dread the first few minutes of a party because you find yourself at a loss for conversation starters.   Or the conversation may begin, but soon fizzles out.  Maybe others tell you that it feels like you are not listening when you are doing your best to hear what the other person is saying.

Good communication is an important skill for all your relationships. The more comfortable you are with having conversations the more comfortable you will be connecting with others.

Here are six helpful tools that can help you in any of those situations, and anytime you want to communicate.  These suggestions can help you start a conversation, keep it going, and have people think that you are a great listener. Continue reading

“Finding Dory”: Words of Wisdom from Dory, Her Family and Friends.

Words of Wisdom from Dory, family and friendsSometimes, life is simply too much.  Too much at home, too much in the news, too much violence and sadness and loss. Times like that, your best option can be to escape the intense moment and rest your mind and spirit.  This week, I escaped with my grandchildren and a fish named Dory.

After rushing to the theater, buying popcorn and getting two small children settled in their seats, those new reclining ones, I settled back to enjoy the beauty of Finding Dory (“Not Dora, but Dory,” my granddaughter says. “Repeat after me: Dor…y.”).

Continue reading

After Orlando, Deflecting Fear One Person at a Time

After Orlando Deflecting Fear One Person at a TimeAlisha came in with a look of fear and anxiety. “What is wrong with the world? Another mass shooting and no-one there to stop it. Why are the police not doing their job and protecting us? I can’t make sense of what is happening in the world. I feel so powerless, what can I do?”

Alisha was the first of many people, both male and female, to express these thoughts about the shooting in Orlando, both in and out of my office. In many ways, I am speechless and feel as powerless as everyone else.

The temptation is to follow the path of anger and violence: when in doubt, strike back. We all want something done so we can go back to what we see as the safe cocoon of the 50’s and 60’s. That is an illusion. I vividly remember the Bay of Pigs, waiting on the school playground to hear whether we were going to war. Was my daddy going to have to go to war? My best friend Kay and I held hands crying and trying to console one another.

Continue reading

7 Benefits of Learning Something That Doesn’t Interest You

7 Benefits to learning something that dos't interest youLast  December, I was checking Facebook and saw one of the new live chats pop up in my feed.  WRAL-TV anchor David Crabtree and my friend, producer Stephanie Beck, were taking questions from viewers.  One viewer asked what tips they had for an aspiring news reporter.  Crabtree’s answer, while directed toward a student in the journalism field, can teach everyone an important lesson about life.

HE SUGGESTED THAT WHILE IN SCHOOL YOU:

“Take a course in a subject that you have absolutely no interest in

and master it very quickly…. As a news reporter, at the morning

meeting, you are thrown into a story. You have no idea what the

story is or even what the subject matter is. You have to learn it

very quickly, immerse yourself in it, master it and tell a cohesive,

cogent story by the end of the day. If you have trained yourself by

learning something you have no interest in you can transfer that

into your work.”

His words resonated with me on a number of levels, so much so that I’m sharing them with you six months later.  When I began this blog, this was a project that I had no interest in or desire to do.  I embraced it, though, and today you’re reading my 100th entry.  Doing something I was not interested in doing has taught new skills, revealed new interests and allowed me to learn quite a bit about myself.

Continue reading